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Barcelona, a top Spanish holiday destinationhas announced it will ban apartment rentals to tourists by 2028, an unexpectedly drastic move as it seeks to rein in rising housing costs and make the city livable for residents.
The city’s leftist mayor, Jaume Colboni, said on Friday that by November 2028 Barcelona will revoke the licenses of 10,101 apartments currently approved as short-term rentals.
“We are facing what we believe is Barcelona’s biggest problem,” Colboni said at a city hall event. This meant that “from 2029”, if there were no setbacks, “tourist apartments as we imagine them today will disappear from the city of Barcelona”.
A boom in short-term rentals in Barcelona, Spain’s most visited city by foreign tourists, means some residents can’t afford an apartment after rents have risen 68% in the past 10 years and the cost of buying a house rose by 38%, Colboni said. Access to housing has become a driver of inequality, especially for young people, he added.
National governments are enjoying the economic benefits of tourism – Spain ranks among the top three most visited countries in the world – but with locals priced out in some places, gentrification and owner preferences for lucrative tourist rentals are becoming more common a hot topic across Europe.
Over the past decade, local authorities have announced restrictions on short-term rentals in places like Spain’s Canary Islands, Lisbon and Berlin.
Spain’s Socialist Housing Minister Isabel Rodriguez said she supported Barcelona’s decision.
“It’s about making every effort necessary to ensure access to affordable housing,” she posted on X.
Vacation rental platform Airbnb, which hosts a significant number of listings in Barcelona, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Colboni makes a mistake that will lead to [higher] poverty and unemployment,” Barcelona tourist apartment association Apartur said in a statement, adding that the ban would cause an increase in illegal tourist apartments.
Hotels can benefit from the move. The opening of new hotels in the city’s most popular areas was banned by the far-left party governing Barcelona between 2015 and 2023, but Colboni has signaled he may relax the restriction.
The Barcelona Hoteliers Association declined to comment on Friday’s announcement.
“These 10,000 apartments will be used by the city’s residents or put on the market for rent or sale,” Colboni said of the measure.
Barcelona’s local government said in a statement that it would maintain its “strict” inspection regime to detect potential illegal tourist apartments after the ban comes into effect.
In recent years, no new tourist apartments have been allowed in the city. The local government has ordered the closure of 9,700 illegal tourist apartments since 2016, and nearly 3,500 apartments have been rehabilitated to be used as primary housing for local residents, the release said.
But that hasn’t stopped the number of visitors to the city – known for its Belle Epoque architecture, museums and beaches – from continuing to increase, especially after the lifting of travel restrictions due to the Covid pandemic.
Several local associations called for a demonstration on July 6 with the slogan: “Enough! Let’s end tourism!”
The rally will come after other similar demonstrations held in recent months in other Spanish tourist hotspots such as the Canary Islands and Palma de Mallorca.
Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
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