Barcelona to Bar Apartment Rentals to Tourists by 2028

The move is part of a larger effort to cut soaring housing costs and make the city liveable for residents

Spanish holiday destination Barcelona has announced that it will bar apartment rentals to tourists by 2028. This unexpectedly drastic move is part of a larger effort to rein in soaring housing costs and make the city liveable for residents.

The city's leftist mayor, Jaume Collboni, said that by November 2028, Barcelona would scrap the licenses of the 10,101 apartments currently approved as short-term rentals. "We are confronting what we believe is Barcelona's largest problem," Collboni told a city government event.

Housing Woes

• Barcelona's leftist mayor has said that by November 2028, the city will scrap the licenses of the 10,101 apartments currently approved as short-term rentals
• The boom in short-term rentals in Barcelona, Spain's most visited city by foreign tourists, means that some residents cannot afford an apartment after rents rose 68% in the past 10 years
• No new tourist apartments have been allowed in the city in recent years.

The boom in short-term rentals in Barcelona, Spain's most visited city by foreign tourists, means some residents cannot afford an apartment after rents rose 68% in the past 10 years and the cost of buying a house rose by 38%, Collboni said. Access to housing has become a driver of inequality, particularly for young people, he added.

Rental Restrictions

National governments relish the economic benefits of tourism – Spain ranks among the top three most visited countries in the world – but with local residents priced out in some places, gentrification and owner preference for lucrative tourist rentals are increasingly a hot topic across Europe. Local governments have announced restrictions on short-term rentals in places such as Spain's Canary Islands, Lisbon and Berlin in the past decade.

However, hotels stand to benefit from the move. The opening of new hotels in the city's most popular areas was banned by a far-left party governing Barcelona between 2015 and 2023, but Collboni has signaled he could relax the restriction.

No new tourist apartments have been allowed in the city in recent years. The local government has ordered the shutting of 9,700 illegal tourist apartments since 2016 and close to 3,500 apartments have been recovered to be used as primary housing for local residents, it said.