Barcelona has long benefited from being one of Europe’s most visited cities. In recent years, however, that booming tourism industry has also shown its ugly side, with locals being priced out of the market for buying and renting homes.
To help combat this housing crisis and rising tensions between residents and tourists, the city recently announced that it will ban all tourist apartment rentals by 2028.
The measure will take effect in November of that year and revoke the short-term rental licenses of 10,101 apartments throughout Barcelona.
“We are confronting what we believe is Barcelona’s largest problem,” said the city’s mayor, Jaume Collboni.
According to Collboni, rent prices have increased by 68% over the last ten years, while the cost of buying a home has risen by about 38%. He attributes the issue to the dramatic increase in short-term rentals, gentrification, and property owners who prefer to manage tourist apartments, which tend to be more lucrative than renting to full-time residents.
“The city’s residents will use those 10,000 apartments or go on the market for rent or sale,” Collboni added.
Although the creation of new tourist apartments has been banned in recent years, that hasn’t stopped some property owners from listing illegal short-term rentals. Over 9,700 unlicensed tourist apartments have already been shut down since 2017.
Critics of the ban say it will only lead to an increase in more illegal tourist apartments and perhaps other economic issues.
“Collboni is making a mistake that will lead to (higher) poverty and unemployment,” Barcelona’s tourist apartments association APARTUR said in a statement.
Meanwhile, others claim that only hotels will benefit from the drastic measures as they’ll have less competition.
Only time will tell whether this move to ban popular accommodation options like Airbnb will effectively address housing issues while keeping tourism numbers high.
One thing is sure: Barcelona isn’t the first significant destination to implement such strict rules against vacation rentals, and it won’t be the last.
