The popular Spanish tourist destination of Barcelona has announced that it will ban apartment rentals to tourists by 2028, a surprisingly drastic move to curb skyrocketing housing costs and make the city more liveable for its residents.
Barcelona’s leftist mayor, Jaume Corboni, said on Friday that by November 2028, the licences for 10,101 apartments currently approved for short-term rental will be abolished.
“We are addressing what we believe to be Barcelona’s biggest problem,” Corboni said at a city government event, which means that “from 2029 onwards”, without any obstacles, “tourist apartments as we think of them today will disappear from the city of Barcelona.”
In Barcelona, Spain’s most popular city for foreign tourists, the proliferation of short-term rentals has made apartments unaffordable for some residents as rents have risen 68 percent in the past decade and home buying costs have risen 38 percent, Corboni said. Access to housing is a source of inequality, especially for young people, he added.
Governments have welcomed the economic benefits of tourism – Spain ranks among the top three most visited countries in the world – but in some areas locals are being squeezed out by rising rents, and gentrification and landlords’ preference for more lucrative tourist rentals is becoming a growing topic of conversation across Europe.
Over the past decade, local governments in Spain’s Canary Islands, Lisbon, Berlin and elsewhere have announced restrictions on short-term rentals.
A banner reading “No tourist apartments” hangs from a balcony in Barcelona’s Barceloneta district. Photo: Pau Ballena/AFP/Getty Images
Spain’s Socialist Housing Minister Isabel Rodriguez said she supported Barcelona’s decision.
“The aim is to make every effort necessary to ensure access to affordable housing,” she posted on X.
Airbnb, a vacation rental platform that lists many accommodations in Barcelona, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Corboni made a mistake and that [higher] “There is a risk that this will lead to an increase in poverty and unemployment,” Barcelona’s tourist apartment association Apartur said in a statement, adding that the ban would lead to an increase in illegal tourist apartments.
The move would benefit the hotel industry: New hotel openings in the city’s most popular areas were banned by the far-left party that ruled Barcelona from 2015 to 2023, but Corboni has signalled he may ease restrictions.
Barcelona’s hotel association declined to comment on Friday’s announcement.
“These 10,000 apartments will either be used by city residents or put on the market for rent or sale,” Corboni said of the move.
Barcelona’s regional government said in a statement that it would maintain a “robust” inspection regime to spot potential illegal tourist apartments even after the ban comes into force.
No new tourist apartments have been allowed to be built in the city in recent years. The local government has ordered the closure of 9,700 illegal tourist apartments since 2016, and says it has confiscated nearly 3,500 apartments that were used as primary residences by local residents.
But visitor numbers in the city known for its Belle Époque architecture, museums and beaches have continued to grow, especially since COVID-19 travel restrictions were lifted.
Several local groups have called for demonstrations on July 6th under the slogan “Enough is enough! Stop tourism!”
The rally is due to take place on the heels of similar demonstrations held in other Spanish tourist destinations, including the Canary Islands and Palma de Mallorca, in recent months.
Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.
