Barcelona will take the drastic move of ridding itself of all short term rentals by late 2028.
Mayor Jaume Collboni, said the city will by November 2028 scrap licenses for the 10,000-plus apartments which are registered.
“We are confronting what we believe is Barcelona’s largest problem,” Collboni said.
“Tourist flats as we conceive of them today will disappear from the city of Barcelona”.
“Those 10,000 apartments will be used by the city’s residents or will go on the market for rent or sale,” Collboni added.
City officials blame the rise of Airbnb and other rental platforms for pushing up both housing rents and the cost of buying a home.
Rents have risen almost 70% in the last decade, the mayor said.
Barcelona’s tourist apartments association Apartur slammed the idea, claiming it will just lead to a surge in illegal short term rentals.
The city government has been cracking down on illegal apartment rentals for several years.
It has shut down about 9,700 unregistered apartment rentals.
“The main driver for this colossal increase of STR supply springs from the lack of clear regulations. A total ban of STR does not appear to be reasonable as there is a substantial market that expects this kind of lodging,” said Javier Delgado, CEO EMEA of hospitality tech provider Mirai.
“With clear regulations plus a reasonable quota of STR units per local citizen there should be ‘room for everyone’ in all cities.”
Carlos Cendra, director of marketing & communications at data firm Mabrian also cites the lack of accurate data on Barcelona short term rental listings.
“The number of short term rentals in Barcelona on Airbnb, for example, was around 15,600 properties– that means that just on Airbnb, there are 50% more properties than there are officially registered.
