In a decision which should cause many a bankster to quake in their boots, the Spanish city of Barcelona has handed down a fine which totals 60,000 euros ($67,640) to three Spanish banks in an effort to force them to make use of empty properties. One hundred other towns and cities, including the capital Madrid, have implemented similar penalties in recent months.

Over one third of all the vacant homes in Europe are located in Spain. The financial crisis hit the country hard: over 3.4 million houses are empty and rising unemployment has seen a sharp increase in mortgage defaults, with 95 homes a day seized by authorities in 2014.

Barcelona's mayor Ada Colau wants to stop all of that. She took power in May this year and is a housing and anti-poverty activist who co-founded the campaign group MVP (Mortgage Victim's Platform) to fight the banks who started this crisis. Colau, 41, is also leader of the grassroots group Barcelona en Comú (Barcelona in common), a coalition of several left-wing political parties and thousands of citizen-activists.

The law allowing Barcelona to crack down on banks with empty homes was passed in 2014, but was never applied until now. The charges relate to 12 properties that have been empty for over two years. The banks- BBVA, Banco Sabadell and Sareb- have one month to find tenants or they will have to pay an additional fine of €10,000 ($11,274). If no action is taken after two months they will face another penalty of up to €15,000 ($16,913). More empty properties are being considered for the same charges, and activists hope that the policy will be rolled out to include all vacant bank-owned homes in Barcelona.