Residents in Tarragona are reporting aggressive tactics by some estate agencies, including unsolicited calls and visits, as agents try to secure properties for sale. The complaints centre on how personal contact details are being obtained and used without clear consent.
Sara, a Tarragona resident, said she felt “violated and harassed” after a call from an estate agent from a franchise in Sant Pere i Sant Pau. She said the agent knew her full name, the address of a flat owned by her father, and that the property was empty. The agent admitted to visiting the building, speaking to neighbours and checking mailboxes, then combining that information with data from a company database.
The issue is unfolding against the backdrop of a housing shortage in Catalonia, which has increased competition among agents for homes to rent or sell. Tecnocasa, a franchise group, has been named in complaints about these practices.
Marc Cornago, a Tarragona estate agent, said some companies “buy databases and have access to information”. He also said agents sometimes look at obituaries to identify possible empty flats, and criticised attempts to poach clients from other agencies as a “lack of respect”.
Héctor Ruana, manager of the Cambra de la Propietat Urbana de Tarragona, said he was aware of clients affected by “very aggressive capture and marketing practices”. He said agents may enter stairwells, check mailboxes for signs of empty homes and look for properties that are more likely to be sold. He also cited cases where clients were misled about contract terms.
Legal experts said the key issue is consent and the source of the data. Eduard Blasi, a lawyer and professor at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), said data protection authorities are paying closer attention as more personal information circulates online. Josep Domingo-Ferrer, a computer science professor at Rovira i Virgili University (URV), said using a mobile number is only lawful in certain cases, such as when it has been published in a professional directory or linked to an existing service. Jordi Castellà, an IT engineering professor and researcher at URV, warned that people should read online terms carefully, especially where data may be reused.
Tecnocasa said it is a franchisor and that each franchise operates as an independent company under its own responsibility. It said its central office does not provide private individual databases for commercial calls and does not promote practices that would breach regulations, citizens’ rights or ethical standards. The company said incidents should be reported and stressed the need to respect data protection rules and good commercial practice.
