The decision made headlines around the world, sparking surprise and threats of billion-euro lawsuits. But months after officials in Barcelona announced plans to rid the city of tourist flats by late 2028, the city’s mayor has described it as a “drastic” but sorely needed move to rein in the surging cost of housing.
“It’s very drastic but it has to be because the situation is very, very difficult,” Jaume Collboni said in one of his first interviews with international media since the June announcement. “In Barcelona, like other big European cities, the number one problem we have is housing.”
The past 10 years have seen rental prices in the city soar by 68% while the cost of buying a house has climbed 38%. As some residents complained of being priced out of the city, Collboni began eyeing up the 10,101 licences the city had handed out allowing accommodation to be rented to tourists through platforms such as Airbnb.
What the Socialists’ party mayor saw was a relatively swift way to bolster the city’s stock of residential homes while also curtailing some of the 32 million tourists who descend on the city of 1.7 million annually.
“Under the model of mass tourism that has colonised the city centre, we’ve seen two things fundamentally harmed: the right of access to housing, because housing is used for economic activity, and coexistence among neighbours, particularly in areas that have more tourist apartments,” said Collboni.
The city had long sought to grapple with this, setting out limits on the number of tourist flats. “After years, we’ve come to the conclusion that doing things halfway doesn’t work,” said Collboni. “It’s very difficult to manage and to make sure there are no illegal rentals. It’s much more simple and more clear to say that there will be no more tourist flats in Barcelona.”
While some have criticised the years it will take for the measure to come into effect, Collboni traced the 2028 timeline to regional legislation that last year limited tourist flat licences to five years in areas with scant access to housing. It was in this clause that officials in Barcelona saw their chance: in 2028, when the current crop of licences expire in Barcelona, their plan is simply not to renew any of them.
The idea, however, comes with substantial limitations. Collboni’s mandate as mayor ends in 2027, leaving the plan vulnerable to being scrapped if elections yield a change in municipal government. The regional legislation also allows for owners to request a one-time extension of up to five years if they are able to prove that they’ve invested significantly in the property, though Collboni argued that such cases would make up a “minor part” of the licences in Barcelona.
Instead his hope is that the plan will result in more than 10,000 properties returned to the residential market, where recently introduced rent caps and a pending national registry aimed at curbing short-term rentals would ideally keep them from becoming luxury flats or monthly rentals. The city’s team of about 30 inspectors – who officials say detect more than 300 illegal tourist flats a month – is set to be bolstered by 10 more positions in the coming months and will continue to operate at full force after 2028 to crack down on any illegal rentals that might spring up.
The announcement in June caught many in the city by surprise. “We didn’t think he was so radical,” said Jaume Artigues of the Eixample Dreta Neighbours Association, which represents a neighbourhood that is home to approximately 17% of the city’s legal tourist flats – about 1,655 of them weave through the central neighbourhood known for its modernist architecture. “I think it is a very, very brave measure because it’s going to be a tough legal battle against the economic interests of this sector.”
But Artigues worried about the drawn-out timeline, describing it as an uncertain gamble in a city where access to housing was already an emergency. The sentiment was echoed by Albert Freixa, from the Housing Syndicate of Eixample. “You can’t promise something for 2028, when there’s an election and you don’t even know if you’re going to be mayor,” said Freixa.
In September, the organisation Apartur, which represents management companies and the owners of 85% of the legal tourist flats in the province of Barcelona, announced plans to sue for compensation over lost revenues and investment. Describing the city’s plan as “covert forced expropriation,” the organisation mused that the demands could run as high as €3bn (£2.5bn).
The country’s constitutional court is also due to weigh in on the plan. In February it agreed to hear a legal challenge, lodged by the conservative People’s party, that argued the regional legislation had, among other issues, overstepped its boundaries when it comes to setting out how private property could be used.
Collboni likened the argument to someone trying to launch a four-table restaurant in their home. “Nobody would do that. Because you have to meet hygiene standards, you have to pay taxes, you have to have regularised staff to work there,” he said. “We say no, you can’t do whatever you want with your property. An apartment is to be lived in; it is not a business.”
When contacted by the Guardian, Airbnb – believed to facilitate the rental of most tourist flats in the city – did not comment directly on the Barcelona plan.
Instead it called for the city to rethink its approach to short-term rentals, arguing that the city’s housing and overtourism challenges have not eased even as the municipality has sought to clamp down on tourist flats. Citing government data suggesting that vacant homes significantly outnumber short-term rentals in the city, it argued that addressing this problem would be more likely to increase the supply of affordable housing.
The showdown comes as tensions over tourism in Barcelona continue to run high. The simmering anger of some burst into public view this summer after a handful of protesters bearing water guns squirted water at tourists, while others wielded signs reading “Tourists go home” and “You are not welcome.”
What emerged was not a reflection of how the majority of residents feel, said Collboni. “But it’s true that there is an uneasiness in the city over this feeling that we’re losing parts of the city,” he said, pointing to La Rambla, the tourist-clogged, souvenir shop-lined boulevard as an example of an area that some residents lament has been swallowed up by mass tourism.
“Tourism has to be limited to what the city can actually absorb,” said Collboni. “We cannot grow indefinitely at the expense of those who live in the city.”
