The mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, today announced a controversial and drastic move that might eliminate all short-term apartment rentals to tourists by 2028.
Barcelona’s grid pattern only really involves life when viewed from above.
Rising cost of living in Barcelona
The boom in short-term rentals in Barcelona has led to a big increase in the price of living within the Catalan capital. Many residents can now not afford housing after rents have risen by almost 70% within the last 10 years, while the price of shopping for an apartment has increased by almost 40%, Collboni said at a city council meeting on June 21, adding that access to housing has develop into a driver of inequality, especially for young people. This has prompted the local government to take drastic measures to ensure access to housing in the town, the Barcelona mayor continued.
“We cannot allow the majority of young people who want to leave their homes to have to leave Barcelona,” said Collboni. According to the leading Spanish newspaper El Pais.
The problem of overtourism has develop into a growing problem in Barcelona lately.
Spain, the second most visited country on the planet
Spain is one in all the most visited countries on the planetAccording to a report published by Statista in June 2024, the country ranks second by way of visitor numbers after France. In 2023, greater than 85 million international tourists were received, the next number than the pre-pandemic record of 83 million in 2019. Catalonia, with its capital Barcelona, was meanwhile the region of Spain that received essentially the most international tourists in 2023.
In recent years, it has develop into increasingly difficult to acquire a permit for short-term rental of apartments in Barcelona. Since 2012, a tourist license has been required to legally rent an apartment defined as a “Vivienda de Uso Turístico” (apartment for tourist purposes) in Barcelona for a period of lower than 31 days. Last 12 months, the principles were tightened, limiting the licenses to a maximum of ten tourist apartments per 100 inhabitants. In addition, the town has restricted the everlasting licenses for Local authorities have also doubled their efforts to trace down and shut illegal tourist rentals.
Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter is especially crowded in the course of the busy summer season.
The fight against illegal holiday homes
These measures have resulted within the closure of 9,700 illegal tourist rentals and the conversion of just about 3,500 apartments into housing for local residents since 2016.
Today’s move is essentially the most drastic one yet taken by the leading Barcelona every day La Vanguardia predicts “bloody judicial war”If Mayor Collboni gets his way, the town council will close the town’s current 10,101 licensed holiday rentals by November 2028 at the most recent. His move, which has stunned the tourism sector, is anticipated to face opposition from various stakeholders, not least the Barcelona Holiday Rental Employers’ Association, and is more likely to end in a lengthy legal battle.
Meanwhile, there is no such thing as a official statement yet from the holiday rental platform Airbnb, which hosts a big proportion of short-term rentals in Barcelona.
