He did not rent the place out, but preferred to keep it to themselves as a pleasant place to spend a few weeks to months as they are getting old now. But after this incident he sold it quickly.
I'm not exactly pro-squatting, but this isn't a very sympathetic story.
I'd be caution against shifting over to victim blaming, like he asked for it. Rings a bell?
If it's their primary residence, then it's not considered "occupation" but rather "breaking and entering", and contacting the local police would get the criminals removed quickly, without much fuss.
It sounds more like it was a vacation house, and potentially for people who don't actually live in the country. In that case, it gets harder to claim they're in a morally superior position, especially considering the housing crisis we face here, that gets worse and worse every day.
I live in southern Europe. If I look out of my window, the tall buildings in front are about 80% shuttered all year round. At the same time, there is an acute shortage of housing in this area. Many families who have been here for generations are moving out, because real estate prices are too high, for both renting and buying.
I can't help feeling something is very wrong, despite the abundance of foreign capital. What do you think?
The problem, as ever, is uneven distribution - both of capital and population.
I see this as a problem which will solve itself in fairly short order - as remote work becomes more common, and then as AI devours entire categories of jobs and UBI becomes an inevitability, people will start to want to move out of the ridiculously overpriced magnet cities, and into the villages and towns our parents deserted.
Hang on, it actually does solve the housing problem by one important metric: an empty house has someone living in it now. I understand there are other metrics (cost to the owner) but it does do something to solve part of the problem, and I'd argue that the more a property is used as an invesment vehicle (sitting there collecting dust) the more it solves the problem. If someone is buying a house to fix it up and live in it as a primary residence, then squatters can fuck right off. But if I bought my sixth home and make my yearly visit to it and notice it has occupants, they aren't the assholes here. I am.
So on hand, it sucks for your wealthy friend that their investment only made X% amount instead of XX% amount. But on the other hand, I feel for the people who are being forced away from their home as well, because there still isn't enough protections for the people who actually live and work here.