After living in the US for a few years, the rest in Europe, and having worked there too, it amazes me the disdain for private property and its defense that exists in the latter.

And don't get me wrong: it's mostly hypocrisy IMHO, but real defense, like e.g. making sure laws like this don't pass, it's marginal. It's common, at least in Spain, for leftist politicians and media personalities, which tend to be the ones proposing pro-squatter bills, to have large and/or multiple houses.