Spain’s top destination for foreign visitors has suspended the issuance of new tourist apartment licenses in recent years.
Barcelona wants to put an end to the rental of tourist apartments by 2029 to facilitate access to housing for residents, the mayor of this northeastern city announced on Friday.Spain which receives millions of tourists per year.
“The Catalan Parliament authorizes us” now “not to renew the licenses for tourist apartments”, which “will allow us to put 10,000 accommodations back on the rental or sale market”, assured during a press conference the mayor of Barcelona, the socialist Jaume Collboni.
According to the municipality, the licenses for tourist apartments, renewed for five years in November, will expire in November 2028. This means that “from 2029”, if there are no setbacks, “tourist apartments such as we design them today will disappear from the city of Barcelona “, launched the councilor.
To implement this measure, Barcelona wants to use a decree approved last year by the regional parliament of Catalonia, which regulates the number of accommodations with a license for tourist use in cities where real estate pressure is greatest .
Rents up 68% over 10 years
“The city cannot allow such a high number of apartments to be used for tourist activity in a context where the difficulty of access to housing and the negative effects of tourist overpopulation are obvious,” justified the council. municipal in a press release.
According to Jaume Collboni, who considers housing to be Barcelona’s “main” problem, rents have increased by 68% over the last ten years in the Catalan capital, where 10,101 homes currently have a license as tourist apartments.
Barcelona has suspended the issuance of new licenses in recent years under the leadership of former mayor Ada Colau (2015-2023), a former housing rights activist, in order to regulate the tourist expansion of the city, the leading destination for foreign visitors to Spain.
But this did not prevent the effects of overtourism to continue to be felt on housing, particularly since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic. To protest against this situation, several local associations have called for a demonstration in the city on July 6 under the slogan: “Enough! Let’s put limits on tourism!”.
This gathering follows other similar events already organized in recent months in other major tourist destinations in Spain, such as the Canary Islands and Palma de Mallorca.