Barcelona to ban residence leases to vacationers in bid to chop housing prices

Barcelona, a top Spanish holiday destination, has introduced it is going to bar residence leases to vacationers by 2028, an unexpectedly drastic transfer because it seeks to rein in hovering housing prices and make town livable for residents.

Town’s leftist mayor, Jaume Collboni, mentioned on Friday that by November 2028, Barcelona would scrap the licences of the ten,101 residences presently authorized as short-term leases.

“We’re confronting what we consider is Barcelona’s largest downside,” Collboni informed a metropolis authorities occasion. This meant that “from 2029”, if there have been no setbacks, “vacationer flats as we conceive of them in the present day will disappear from town of Barcelona”.

The growth in short-term leases in Barcelona, Spain’s most visited metropolis by overseas vacationers, meant some residents couldn’t afford an residence after rents rose 68% previously 10 years and the price of shopping for a home rose by 38%, Collboni mentioned. Entry to housing had change into a driver of inequality, notably for younger individuals, he added.

Nationwide governments relish the financial advantages of tourism – Spain ranks among the many top-three most visited nations on this planet – however with native residents priced out in some locations, gentrification and proprietor choice for profitable vacationer leases are more and more a hot topic across Europe.

Native governments have introduced restrictions on short-term leases in locations corresponding to Spain’s Canary Islands, Lisbon and Berlin previously decade.

Spain’s Socialist housing minister, Isabel Rodriguez, mentioned she supported Barcelona’s resolution.

“It’s about making all the mandatory efforts to ensure entry to reasonably priced housing,” she posted on X.

Trip leases platform Airbnb, which hosts a major variety of Barcelona listings, didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

“Collboni is making a mistake that can result in [higher] poverty and unemployment,” Barcelona’s vacationer residences affiliation Apartur mentioned in a press release, including the ban would set off an increase in unlawful vacationer residences.

Resorts stand to profit from the transfer. The opening of latest resorts within the metropolis’s hottest areas was banned by a far-left get together governing Barcelona between 2015 and 2023, however Collboni has signalled he might calm down the restriction.

Barcelona’s resort affiliation declined to touch upon Friday’s announcement.

“These 10,000 residences might be utilized by town’s residents or will go available on the market for lease or sale,” Collboni mentioned of the measure.

Barcelona’s native authorities mentioned in a press release it will preserve its “sturdy” inspection regime to detect potential unlawful vacationer residences as soon as the ban got here into power.

No new vacationer residences have been allowed within the metropolis in recent times. The native authorities had ordered the shutting of 9,700 unlawful vacationer residences since 2016 and shut to three,500 residences had been recovered for use as major housing for native residents, it mentioned.

However that has not prevented the variety of guests to town – identified for its belle epoque structure, museums and seashores – from persevering with to extend, particularly after Covid pandemic journey restrictions had been lifted.

A number of native associations have referred to as for an illustration on 6 July with the slogan: “Sufficient! Let’s put a cease to tourism!”

The rally will come on the heels of comparable demonstrations held in latest months in different Spanish tourism hotspots such because the Canary Islands and Palma de Mallorca.

Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report