The Community of Madrid has purchased a luxury penthouse in the Madrid district of Chamberí that, according to the first explanation offered by the regional Executive, would serve as a temporary office for the president Isabel Díaz Ayuso while the Real Casa de Correos, the official seat of the regional government, is being rehabilitated. The operation, reported by El País, has opened a new controversy due to its cost, the lack of publicity regarding the acquisition, and doubts about the use that can be given to the property.
The purchase was formalized on April 14 by Planifica Madrid, a public company dependent on the Presidency Department. The property has 485 square meters, of which about 200 correspond to a terrace, and is located in one of the most expensive residential areas of the capital, next to the Sorolla Museum, close to the Paseo de la Castellana and the private residence of Díaz Ayuso.
The price paid by the regional Administration has not been made public. Sources from the real estate sector consulted by El País place the market value of a property of these characteristics at around six million euros. The acquisition was not expressly included in the budgets of Planifica Madrid for 2026 and, three and a half months after it was formalized, it also did not appear on the public company's transparency portal.
The Community changes its explanation about the destination of the property
The first version conveyed by the Madrid government was that Ayuso would use the penthouse “during the rehabilitation of the Real Casa de Correos, the works of which will begin in August.” The president would work there accompanied by a small team while the actions at the regional Presidency headquarters were developed.
However, after the operation became public, Ayuso's team modified that explanation. According to a second report from El País, the decision “is not one hundred percent made” and the destination of the property will not be definitively determined until October or November, once the space has been remodeled.
This change of version constitutes one of the main focal points of the controversy. The Community has made a million-euro investment without previously communicating the purchase and without having, according to its latest explanation, a clear plan for what the building will be used for. It has also not clarified why it opted to acquire a luxury penthouse instead of temporarily renting offices or moving the Presidency team to another property already belonging to the Administration.
An office in an attic?
To these unknowns is added a urban planning issue. The PSOE of the Madrid City Council argues that the applicable regulations for the building, located in a residential area, would not allow for an office to be installed on such a high floor. Tertiary activity would be limited to the lower floors. If this interpretation is confirmed, the Community would have to justify the urban planning compatibility of the use initially announced.
Heritage investment
The regional government defends that the purchase should be understood as a heritage investment and not as an expense exclusively linked to Ayuso. The property will remain in the hands of the Community of Madrid when the works of the Real Casa de Correos are completed and may subsequently be allocated to other administrative uses.
The opposition, on the contrary, considers that the operation has too many unknowns: the exact price is not known, it was not included in the annual budget, it was not published on the transparency portal, and the explanations about its purpose have changed in a few hours. PSOE and Más Madrid demand to know the complete file and the conditions of the acquisition.
Another attic puts Ayuso in trouble again
The controversy has an added political burden due to the precedent of the attic where Ayuso lives with her partner, Alberto González Amador, also in Chamberí. González Amador bought in 2022 a residence located on the sixth floor of a building in the district. The couple then began to also use the immediately upper attic, acquired in 2023 by Babia Capital, a company managed by Javier Gómez Fidalgo, lawyer and tax advisor of the businessman.
The ownership and usage conditions of that second property fueled months of criticism from the opposition, in parallel to the judicial investigation against González Amador for alleged tax fraud. In November 2025, the businessman ended up buying the attic with a mortgage of 600,000 euros, after having paid, according to published information, a rent of 5,000 euros per month.
The new operation is of a different nature. In this case, the attic belongs to a public company and its use would be institutional, not residential. However, the coincidence of the type of property and its location in Chamberí has allowed the opposition to recover the previous episode and talk about “another attic” linked to Ayuso.