The Community of Madrid is now selling the luxury penthouse for Ayuso
The Madrid government says it will allocate the money from the sale to "increase the budget" for fires
MadridThe Community of Madrid has decided to get rid of the 485-square-meter penthouse it bought as a "temporary office" for Isabel Díaz Ayuso's government, as reported by the Madrid government this Wednesday at noon after its governing council meeting. This comes after 24 hours of controversy since the purchase of the property was made public following information from "The Country, Ayuso's government has decided to include this penthouse in the sale of four properties owned by her located on Gran Vía in Madrid.
"I have instructed the public company Planifica Madrid to put up for sale four properties we own on Gran Vía in Madrid and also the property located on Paseo General Martínez Campo, valued at approximately 20 million euros in total," explained the spokesperson for the Madrid government, Miguel Ángel García Martín, in a press briefing this Thursday. The flat located on Paseo General Martínez Campo, in the residential neighborhood of Chamberí, is the controversial penthouse that includes a 199-square-meter terrace and that the regional government reportedly purchased as a "temporary office" while the Royal House of Correos is being renovated. In a press conference this Wednesday, Ayuso stated that it was unclear whether the property was for her personally and denounced a campaign of "discrediting in full emergency" due to the fires. In fact, according to García Martín, the amount obtained from the sale of these properties will be allocated "to the reconstruction of the Sierra Oeste after the fire.
Shortly before the decision became known, the PP continued to defend the purchase: "The Community of Madrid has provided explanations [...] It is a comprehensive renovation of the regional government's headquarters, and it makes perfect sense that a temporary location be set up for a period, that is what they have explained and we echo those explanations," said Miguel Tellado, Secretary General of the PP, at a press conference this Thursday.
In a statement, the regional government explains that the planned works will continue at the Royal Post Office throughout this summer to maintain the building "in the best conditions" and that it will now "continue to seek, within its real estate assets, spaces that meet the necessary conditions to relocate the activity of the Royal Post Office while the rehabilitation works last".
The Madrid opposition, which demanded explanations quickly, has not been slow to react to the decision to sell the property now. "The only reason why Ayuso's penthouse, bought with public money, is being sold is because we have caught them. The shame is so great that they have to use the pain of the Madrid fires, which she herself could have prevented, to cover up her defeat," stated Manuela Bergerot, spokesperson for Más Madrid in the regional Assembly, via the social network X. Members of Pedro Sánchez's government also came out in force this Wednesday to criticize the purchase of the property and reproached Ayuso's government for buying a penthouse while "refusing to freeze the rents of thousands of Madrid residents". "The only housing that interests her is her own," asserted the Minister of Housing, Isabel Rodríguez.
"It is false, I am not buying anything nor are they buying anything for me," Ayuso said this Wednesday at a press conference, although she acknowledged that the apartment was one of the spaces that would be used during the rehabilitation that will be carried out on the Real Casa de Correos building, headquarters of the regional government.
The acquisition of the apartment was made in mid-April by the same public company Planifica Madrid, which manages the Community's land, but it was not advertised or included in any budget or transparency portal. Neither the government nor the president have clarified the price, but according to investigations by the newspaper El País, an apartment of these characteristics is located between four and six million euros.
In parallel, the businessman Alberto González Amador, Isabel Díaz Ayuso's partner, has put the apartment that both owned since 2023 up for sale for 1,790,000 euros, as reported by El Plural and El País. It is the apartment he bought after committing an alleged tax fraud for which he will be tried.