Authorities in Barcelona plan to ban short-term apartment rentals to tourists by 2028, following policies that have emerged across Europe in recent years.
“We are addressing what we believe to be Barcelona’s biggest problem,” Barcelona Mayor Jaume Corboni said at a city council event.
Barcelona are aiming to abolish all loans by the 2028 deadline.
According to Reuters, the city plans to scrap all 10,101 apartment licenses approved for short-term rentals.
Corboni argued that while the tourism boom has benefited the country, it has also squeezed local apartment supply, driving up rents for locals by around 68% over the past decade, while house prices have risen by 38%, exacerbating already problematic inequalities.
But short-term rentals in Barcelona have been stagnant for years, hovering around 10,000 since 2014 despite house prices continuing to rise. Barcelona City Hall figures.
According to city data, Barcelona has around 850,000 housing units, of which around 10,000 are short-term rentals, making up only a small proportion of the total.
moreover, Official tourism activity data It shows that 70% of tourists stayed in hotels, hostels and other traditional accommodation last year.
An Airbnb spokesperson said the company couldn’t comment on the issue but directed Fox Business to a statement from the European Holiday Home Association, which argued that a shortage of short-term rentals is creating a hotel boom without solving the real housing problem.
“Banning short-term rentals in Barcelona while allowing the construction of large numbers of new hotels will neither solve the housing problem nor make tourism more sustainable. It will simply deprive local families of needed income and give it to international hotel chains,” the association wrote.
“Less than 1 percent of Barcelona’s housing stock is short-term rental, bringing much-needed income to local families and making tourism more sustainable and less intensive,” the association continued. “The EU has already said that Barcelona’s home-sharing rules are disproportionate and will not improve the city’s housing problem. We want to work with leaders to move in a better direction.”
The Italian city of Florence last year announced a ban on new short-term rentals, which it defines as properties with individual occupancy for less than 30 days.
Mayor Dario Nardella acknowledged last year that the law would face resistance but believed it was entirely justified under the law, the Associated Press reported.
Nardella claimed at the time that the total number of apartments available on Airbnb in the city had skyrocketed from 6,000 to more than 14,000 in just five years, driving locals to live in “aparthotels.”
The city has no intention of vacating 8,000 properties in the city centre but will consider repurposing them where possible.
New York City’s short-term rental crackdown Ordinance No. 18 will go into effect in the fall of 2023.
New York City law requires hosts on platforms like Airbnb, VRBO and Booking.com to register with the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement, NY1 reported.
Stays of less than 30 days are limited to two guests. Guests must have free access to the occupied property and a permanent resident must be present at all times.
