the essential
To deal with the housing crisis and the surge in real estate prices, Barcelona announces the end of Airbnb apartments for 2028. But the measure looks more like a communication stunt than a real revolution.
In the summer of 2014, hundreds of residents of the Barceloneta district mobilized for the first time against mass tourism. This demonstration created astonishment: until then, tourism had always been seen as a wealth-creating activity. They denounced soaring rents and the incivility of tourists.
Ten years later, despite the efforts of the authorities to try to regulate mass tourism, the problem is still there and the reasons for discontent have not changed while real estate prices have increased in 10 years by 68%. for rental and 38% for sale.
Nearly 10,000 homes affected
In an attempt to remedy the expulsion of Barcelona residents from their own city, the socialist mayor announced that he would ban tourist apartments by 2028 by revoking the 10,101 seasonal rental authorizations. “We are responding to what we think is the main problem in Barcelona,” said Mayor Jaume Collboni.
Concretely, nearly 10,000 accommodations can no longer be rented for short stays. “The city cannot allow such a high number of apartments to be used for tourist activity in a context where the difficulty of access to housing and the negative effects of tourist overpopulation are obvious,” continued the socialist .
The city has no longer issued licenses since 2015
But if the measure has all the makings of a shock announcement, its effects will be very limited: since 2016, it has already been prohibited to rent your accommodation on Airbnb or any other platform for a short period without a tourist license. However, the city has no longer issued licenses since 2015. In other words, rental platforms are already prohibited for almost all owners in Barcelona.
Tourists who want to stay in an apartment in the Catalan capital have often had the bitter experience: the offer is extremely limited on Airbnb and generally overpriced. The authorities are also waging a relentless war against illegal rentals, with very regular inspections. Above all, the 10,101 apartments with tourist licenses represent only 0.77% of the real estate stock in Barcelona, a drop in the bucket.
A false good idea
For La Vanguardia, the town hall’s announcement will therefore not have the expected effects. “It is just as simplistic to attribute to these 10,000 housing units the lack of rent at normal prices, as to think that these apartments will return to the classic real estate stock at reasonable prices,” writes the newspaper in its editorial on Saturday .
The measure will not bring down real estate prices because it concerns very few apartments and does not address medium-term rental (between 30 days and 11 months) which remains authorized, for everyone, without license and without price control. However, it is this type of rental, very popular with teleworkers and foreign “digital nomads” which explains the sharp increase in prices. Finally, doubts hover over the application of the measure: the elimination of tourist apartments could be invalidated by the courts.
Barcelona is undoubtedly a victim of its success and mass tourism has contributed to the surge in prices. But like major Spanish cities, the Catalan capital mainly pays for its lack of housing policy with 1.9% of social housing, compared to 21.7% in Toulouse.
