Barcelona plans to ban all short-term rentals for tourists from 2029
There are 10,000 houses registered as rentals for tourists
Barcelona plans to ban all short-term home rentals for tourists from 2029 as the Spanish city’s mayor tries to control surging rent costs for locals in the popular travel destination.
The Mediterranean city will stop giving new licenses and won’t renew existing ones so that in 2029 no homes will have permission to be rented as tourist accommodation, Mayor Jaume Collboni said at a press conference on Friday. There are now about 10,000 houses registered as rentals for tourists.
“More supply of housing is needed, and the measures we’re presenting today are to provide more supply so that the working middle class does not have to leave the city because they can’t afford housing,” Collboni said. “This measure will not change the situation from one day to the next. These problems take time. But with this measure we are marking a turning point.”
Cities including Barcelona have already taken other steps to limit the expansion of short-term rental apartments as they balance a tourism boom with concerns about the lack of affordable housing for residents. Barcelona, which previously cracked down on unlicensed rentals, has seen prices continue to climb.
Collboni said Barcelona currently has “skyrocketing rental prices that are becoming more expensive every day.”
Rent prices per square meter in Barcelona increased 14 per cent in the 12 months through April and are the highest among Spanish cities, according to Idealista, the country’s largest website for property listings.
The city was visited by 16 million tourists in 2023, according to the Barcelona Tourism Observatory.