PSOE spokeswoman Montse Mínguez defends partner's 30 rental flats amid hypocrisy row
Artículo 14 reported that her partner, Sergi Vélez, holds at least 30 rental flats through Nest Capital, and the PP and Madrid's mayor have seized on the case.
The report and Mínguez's response
Artículo 14 reported that Sergi Vélez, partner of PSOE spokeswoman Montse Mínguez, heads the property group Nest Capital, which holds at least 30 apartments and flats let to tenants. According to that report, the company buys buildings in Lleida, refurbishes them and rents out the flats. When tenants stop paying, the company has turned to the courts to recover the property, a process the report links to several evictions. El Español, as cited in the debate, reported that two companies in Panama form part of the family's wider business conglomerate.
On Tuesday 13 October, Mínguez answered on Antena 3's Espejo Público and described the publication as a personal attack. She said the company is a family business that rents flats, complies with the law and follows Catalonia's housing law, under which rent increases cannot be applied in a stressed zone. Asked how much tenants pay, she gave no figure.
Her answer opened with a rejection of the criticism:
The personal attack is the worst thing in politics.
- Mínguez defends the housing decrees against speculation and vulture funds
- Mínguez calls the reports a personal attack and says the family firm complies with the law
- PP sources, Minister Óscar López and Madrid mayor Martínez-Almeida respond publicly
Government and commentators respond
On Wednesday 14 October, Óscar López, the minister for digital transformation and the civil service, answered reporters at the CREO forum organised by Cinco Días. He said the housing debate should centre on which parties defend the right to decent housing, rather than on people carrying out lawful business. He said Vélez carries out a lawful activity and complies with the law.
From there, it is not about hounding or pointing at someone who carries out a lawful activity and complies with the law.
Economist Gonzalo Bernardos, speaking on laSexta's Al Rojo Vivo, said he found the hypocrisy of some left-wing politicians hard to stomach. He argued that owning 30 rental flats is not a reproach in itself, since those flats provide 30 rentals. He also said the PSOE has internal disagreements over rent controls that its members keep quiet in public. He criticised the housing minister Isabel Rodríguez for her remarks against the management company in the case, calling such actions shameless, and warned that legal uncertainty is pushing owners to withdraw flats from the rental market.
Opposition and the Madrid mayor
The PP, through sources at its Génova headquarters, called the case hypocrisy and said a spokeswoman who attacks speculation shares her life with a man whose business is exactly that. The party formally requested a campaign debate on housing with Mínguez and said it would be equally content to debate with her partner.
Madrid's mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, told Servimedia on Wednesday that the owners of Urbagestión, the firm that evicted a tenant in Madrid's Retiro district, look like charity workers beside Mínguez. He also challenged the PSOE city council spokeswoman, Reyes Maroto, to explain why she had not called the extraordinary plenary on housing she announced after the last ordinary plenary, twenty days earlier. He noted that Maroto would need the support of Más Madrid to convene it. The PSOE has filed a complaint against him with the Junta Electoral Central over a municipal act in the Valdecarros urban development on 6 October, and he said he had no problem with the complaint while mocking the party for taking a week to see it as an electoral act.
Campaign context and background
Pedro Sánchez has announced early elections for 29 November. Mínguez is spokesperson of the PSOE Federal Executive, secretary of studies and programmes, and deputy for Lleida in Congress. She began her political career in 2003 as a PSC councillor in Lleida and served as deputy mayor from 2007 until 2019. Transparentia, a portal run by Newtral, lists her annual pay at 129,905.02 euros, calculated on the Congress pay regime as of 2 February 2026. Her 2023 asset declaration, reported by RTVE, recorded rights over three homes in Lleida and Vila-seca. On 2 October she had defended the housing decrees against speculation and vulture funds, arguing that the debate was between speculators and families.