The family of former Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has multiplied its real estate wealth 115-fold since he left the Palace of La Moncloa in 2011, according to a report by Vozpópuli published on December 1, 2025.
The Zapatero family went from declaring a single plot of land in León, northwest Spain, valued at €38,000 in 2011, to owning three luxury chalets and two flats worth more than €3.7 million. The figure rises to nearly €6 million if the chalet where the former premier currently resides, registered to a third party, is included.
The wealth surge has coincided with Zapatero’s role as mediator with the Venezuelan regime of Nicolás Maduro, a position he took on after leaving office.
Zapatero bought a chalet in Famara Bungalows, Lanzarote, for €1.2 million in 2017, another in Aravaca, Madrid, for €800,000 in 2019 and a property in Puerta de Hierro, Madrid, for €700,000 in 2024. The couple now resides in a €2 million chalet in Monte Rozas, Las Rozas, west of Madrid, with permanent police escort, according to El Debate.
His two daughters, Laura and Alba Rodríguez Espinosa, have also bought homes in Madrid in recent years. Their communications agency, What The Fav, reached close to half a million euros in turnover in 2024. Artículo 14 has reported that Zapatero’s friend Julio Martínez Martínez paid the agency around €200,000 through one of his companies.
Martínez is linked to the €53 million public rescue of Spanish airline Plus Ultra in March 2021, which sits at the heart of the criminal proceedings now facing Zapatero. In May 2026, Audiencia Nacional investigating judge José Luis Calama placed the former premier under formal investigation for suspected money laundering and influence peddling around the bailout. He has been summoned to testify as a formal suspect on June 2, becoming the first former Spanish prime minister to be probed for corruption since the country’s return to democracy.
Zapatero, who chairs the advisory council of the pro-China think tank Gate Center, has dismissed the accusations as “calumnies” and denies any wrongdoing.
