Barcelona plans to stop renting out apartments to tourists in a bid to ease the city’s worsening housing crisis. Local authorities aim to make the 10,000 short-term rental apartments in Spain’s main tourist spot available to local residents who complain about high prices.
This is Barcelona on a hot summer day. It is the main tourist point of Spain. Millions of tourists flock every year to get to know the city’s architecture, food, sea and history.
In Barcelona, 1.6 million residents live in the city, but last year, it was visited by 26 million tourists, many of whom stayed in rental apartments.
Although tourism accounts for 15 percent of its economy, residents of Barcelona have taken to the streets to protest against the high number of visitors, which has led to a significant increase in rents for locals.
During a protest against tourists in the Las Ramblas area of Barcelona this month, some demonstrators chanted “go home” and sprayed tourists sitting at outdoor tables with water guns.
Real estate prices in Barcelona have risen by an average of 38 percent over the past decade, a period during which average rents increased by 68 percent, according to municipal authorities.
In response to the housing crisis, Barcelona officials have pledged to curb all short-term rentals until 2028 in hopes of addressing the situation.
Deputy Mayor Laia Bonet says the city welcomes tourism but must do everything possible to help residents facing the sharp rise in rents and real estate prices.
“In Barcelona today, we have 10,000 homes that, when they were built, were intended for residential use, for a family to live in, and today they are catering to the needs and demands of city visitors,” she says, referring to the 10,000 apartments currently rented out on a short-term basis.
Bonet states that not renewing licenses for short-term apartment rentals after their expiration would “create the opportunity for more housing units to be available.”
Residents like 68-year-old Esther Roset and her neighbors welcome such plans.
“In recent years, it has become a disaster here, as vacation apartments have been rented out without consulting the neighbors, and the property manager hasn’t said anything to us,” she says.
Roset mentions that a floor where she lives is rented out as a vacation apartment and that some visitors have been noisy.
“Over time, it has gotten worse,” she says.
However, apartment owners plan to challenge the decision, arguing that eliminating short-term rentals would threaten their livelihood and leave the city with insufficient space for temporary accommodation. About 2.5 million tourists stayed in apartments last year, according to the Barcelona Tourist Apartments Association, also known as Apartur.
“If short-term rentals for 10,000 apartments are blocked, the city will face a major problem, especially for organizing certain types of events that require many rooms,” explains Marian Muro, director of Apartur.
The decision in Barcelona was made possible after the government of the northeastern region of Catalonia, whose capital is Barcelona, passed a law stipulating that current licenses for tourist apartments will expire by 2028 in all areas where there is a shortage of affordable housing.
Spain’s opposition conservative party has taken the regional law to the Constitutional Court, arguing that it infringes on property rights and economic freedom.
Bonaventura Durall runs a company that owns and rents 52 apartments near Barcelona’s coast.
Forty of the apartments are in a building that his company and others constructed in 2010 to capitalize on the growing short-term rental industry.
He says the city council’s plan is unfair and jeopardizes his business and 16 employees.
“People have invested, created jobs, generated taxes, and found a way to secure income, and now they are putting an end to this,” he says.
Critics also argue that this action will inevitably create a black market for short-term rentals.
Studies show that Barcelona needs around 60,000 new housing units to meet current demand.
