Short-term rentals banned in Barcelona from the end of 2028: 10 thousand licenses will not be renewed

The announcement came with a press conference last Friday: off we go from November 2028 Barcelona will ban short-term rentals in the city. «The Catalan parliament has authorized us to do not renew licenses for tourist apartments, which will allow us to put 10,000 houses back on the rental or sales market” declared the socialist mayor Jaume Collboni. In fact, the city has granted 10,101 licenses so far for tourist use and which will not be renewed upon their expiry, starting from the end of 2028.

The motion, among the most decisive taken by a large city so far, wants to counteract the increase in house prices and the emptying of the centre, using a decree approved last year by the regional parliament of Catalonia, which regulates the number of properties with a license for tourist use in cities where real estate pressure is greater. Over the last ten years, in Barcelona, the rents in fact they are increased by almost 70% and the cost of properties for sale by almost 40%. It is not just a problem in Barcelona, ​​but shared by many art cities and capitals due to tourism: New York last year it limited short-term rentals, allowing short-term rentals only to those hosting no more than two people at a time and “in the same unit or apartment” where they live. Demonstrations against mass tourism have been underway in Mallorca for months Rum raisin citizens have united in a grassroots network to counter the spread of short-term rentals in the historic center.

Together with the increase in house prices, the other major negative effect of short-term rentals is in fact theremoval of people from the historic center. In recent years we have become accustomed to seeing more and more signs appearing outside the doors of houses in many cities around the world with the words “tourist rental”, we have become accustomed to spending as much on a rented house as on a hotel room, but at what price?

Apartments and rooms leave the traditional real estate market and end up in theshort term rental for tourists, much more profitable for landlords. Obviously, as the supply of apartments decreases, their cost increases inaccessible to most people, especially young people who would like to buy their first home. The same thing happens with long-term rentals: as there are fewer and fewer homes available, their prices are increasingly higher. «We cannot allow the majority of young who want to leave the family home have to leave Barcelona, ​​many of them, even if they have a more or less stable job, have to leave the city” declared the mayor.

«Starting from 2029, there will be no tourist apartments in Barcelona as we know them today» hopes Mayor Collboni. Immediately after the conference announcing the decision, both part of the opposition and some collectives for the defense of the right to housing and entrepreneurs in the sector immediately said they were against it. «The situation will not change overnight, these problems take time. But with this provision we mark a turning point. Thus 10 thousand houses will be put back on the market in just 5 years” concluded the mayor.