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Associated Press

Imagine planning a holiday and not being able to use Airbnb or similar sites to book an apartment.
This will be a reality for visitors to central Barcelona in four years.
To safeguard and expand the housing supply for full-time residents, local authorities want to rid the Spanish city, known for its architecture, beaches and Catalan culture, of the 10,000 apartments licensed as short-term rental properties.
Barcelona City Hall announced last month it would not renew any tourist apartment licences after they expire in 2028.

Deputy mayor Laia Bonet says the city wants tourism, which accounts for 15 per cent of the local economy, but must help residents cope with skyrocketing rents and real estate prices.
“Our housing emergency obliges us, forces us, to change the way we do things and to put the priority on housing above our policies for accommodating tourists,” Bonet says.

Property owners plan to fight the decision, arguing that eliminating short-term rentals would threaten their livelihoods and leave the city without enough temporary lodging: some 2.5 million visitors to the city stayed in an apartment in 2023, according to the Association of Tourist Apartments of Barcelona, also known as Apartur.
Residents of the city, which has a population of about 1.6 million, have campaigned against “overtourism” for several years, but recently anti-tourism sentiment has become more extreme.
During a demonstration on and around Barcelona’s Las Ramblas this month, some participants shouted “Go home!” and squirted water pistols at people seated at outdoor tables.

Residential real estate prices in Barcelona have increased by an average of 38 per cent over the past decade, and rents by 68 per cent, according to the municipal government.
Like in other popular urban areas, many young people who grew up there struggle to afford a place of their own. Authorities say a lack of supply is partly to blame.
Other cities around the world are also struggling to balance the housing needs of year-round residents with the rights of landlords and the allure of economic benefits that being a top tourist destination can bring.
Measures to limit investors converting apartments into holiday rentals have included partial bans, caps on the number of days units can be let out and registration requirements for frequent hosts.
I shouldn’t have to leave. This is my apartment. If the tourists who came behaved, OK, but one out of every 10 doesn’t
Esther Roset, a Barcelona resident living below a tourist apartment
New York cracked down on short-term apartment rentals in September with rules requiring owners to remain in their residence when they host overnight visitors and capping the number of guests at two.
The mayor of Maui, in Hawaii, said last month that he wants to end condominium rentals to tourists to help deal with a housing shortage worsened by the wildfires that devastated the island in 2023.
In Italy, a 2022 amendment to national legislation allowed Venice to limit short-term rentals, but the city administration has not acted on it.
Before moving to eradicate tourist apartments altogether, Barcelona officials tried more limited approaches.
In 2020, the city’s then mayor, a former housing activist, made several moves to regulate the market, including introducing a ban on the rental of individual rooms in apartments for stays under 31 days.
Barcelona has also moved aggressively to get unlicensed tourist apartments removed from online platforms.

“We have accumulated lots of know-how in Barcelona that we are ready to share with other cities that want to have this debate,” Bonet says.
Bonaventura Durall runs a company that owns and rents out 52 apartments near Barcelona’s beachfront. Forty of the apartments are in a building that his business and others built in 2010 to tap into the growing short-term rental industry.
He says the municipal government’s plan to phase out holiday rentals is unfair and puts his business and its 16 employees at risk.
“There is an investment behind this that has created jobs and tax revenues and a way of life, which will now have its wings clipped,” Durall says. “This is like you go to a bar and take away its liquor licence or you take away a taxi driver’s permit to drive a taxi.”
Critics also say the move will inevitably create a black market of unregulated holiday rentals.
“We are not saying that these apartments will disappear and therefore the owners of these apartments can’t generate revenue from them,” Bonet says. “They will have the same assets, but they will have to put them to the use they were originally built for, which is to house families.”
Ignasi Martí, director of the Dignified Housing Observatory at Spain’s Esade business and law school, says that in addition to probably facing legal hurdles, the initiative would at most only dent rental costs.
Most studies indicate Barcelona needs about 60,000 new housing units to meet current demand, he says.

Martí thinks removing tourists from residential buildings could improve the daily lives of people who call the city home.
Esther Roset, a 68-year-old retired bank worker, thinks so, too. She has spent years complaining about the tourist apartment above her home, where guests have vomited off the balcony, brought in prostitutes and opened a fire extinguisher in the stairwell.
Apartur argues that such behaviour is rare, in part because of Barcelona’s strict regulations.
Roset has other tourist-related peeves, such as the expensive food vendors catering to foreigners that have swept away the traditional bars where she used to be able to get a simple sandwich.
She pointed to three nearby restaurants that specialise in brunch. Roset, like most Spaniards, does not do brunch.
“I shouldn’t have to leave. This is my apartment. If the tourists who came behaved, OK, but one out of every 10 doesn’t,” she says. “In the end, I will have to follow the advice of a lawyer and hang a sheet from my balcony with the message ‘Tourist go home.’”


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Tourism

Barcelona to ban Airbnb-style short-term apartment rentals. Will other cities follow?

Apartments in Barcelona whose residents are protesting against eviction to make way for short-term rental units. The Spanish city has announced a ban on such Airbnb-style rental properties from 2028, which could serve as a blueprint for other tourist destinations to follow. Photo: AP

Tourists at Sagrada Familia, Barcelona’s most famous sightseeing spot. Many visitors to the city stay in short-term rental properties, but this is set to change. Photo: AFP

A block of flats whose residents are at risk of eviction to make way for short-term rental apartments. The banner brings attention to “violent harassment” and an intention to “get justice”. Photo: AP

Demonstrators protest against overtourism in downtown Barcelona. Photo: AP

Demonstrators cordon off a bar during an anti-tourism protest on Barcelona’s Las Ramblas. Many of the city’s residents are fed up with overtourism and its effect on housing in their city. Photo: AFP

Demonstrators hold up a sign decrying Airbnb during a protest against mass tourism in Barcelona. Photo: AFP

Overtourism in Spain: residents have had enough, as protests erupt in Mallorca, Ibiza and the Canary Islands

People in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, take part in a protest against mass tourism, which they say is responsible for increasing housing costs for locals. Photo: Reuters

Demonstrators take part in a performance depicting a tourist and a Mallorcan in traditional costume during a protest against mass tourism on the island of Mallorca. Photo: AFP

Tourists sunbathe on El Arenal beach in Palma de Mallorca. Photo: Reuters

Thousands of people demonstrated in Mallorca against excess tourism, one of the main sources of income for the island, on May 25. Photo: AFP

Protesters hold signs reading “Let’s save Mallorca” and “Foreigners out” during the May 25 protest in Palma de Mallorca. “Guiri” is a slang term that refers to an “uncouth foreigner, primarily drunk, primarily British”. Photo: AFP

Slow travel through northern Spain, and sea views, aboard the Costa Verde Express train

The Costa Verde Express takes passengers along the “Green Coast” of northern Spain. Photo: Instagram/@robbreport

The carpeted lounge of the Costa Verde Express, with its Belle Epoque interiors, which, despite its name, rolls along the “Green Coast” of northern Spain at a leisurely 50km/h with nightly halts for guests to sleep on board and stops for excursions. Photo: Costa Verde Express

The Costa Verde Express crosses a river estuary on its journey between Bilbao and Santiago de Compostela. Photo: Entire Travel

The train passes through woodland on its journey along the coast of northern Spain. Photo: Instagram/@robbreport

The vintage train is decorated in Belle Époque style, with breakfast, dinner and drinks served on board. Photo: Costa Verde Express

Tables set for dinner in the dining car of the Costa Verde Express. Photo: Costa Verde Express

The Costa Verde Express stops in a station along its route every night for guests to sleep undisturbed. Photo: Entire Travel

Some of the 14,000-year-old painted bison on the ceiling of the Altamira cave in northern Spain. Photo: AP 

A replica painting from the Altamira cave. Photo: Getty Images

Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. Photo; Handout

From Amsterdam to Vienna, the fight against overtourism in Europe is being stepped up

Gondoliers proceed slowly near the crowded Sospiri Bridge close to St Mark’s Square in Venice because of heavy water traffic. The city this week began charging day-trippers for entry, the latest measure by a European tourist destination to try to control visitor numbers. Photo: Getty Images

Crowds of tourists on a street in Amsterdam, which has implemented a number of measures to control visitor numbers. Photo: Getty Images

Crowds of tourists in the Old Town of Dubrovnik, Croatia. Since scenes from the TV series Game of Thrones were filmed there, the city has become even more popular with visitors. Photo: Getty Images

A message for visitors spray-painted on walls in Vila de Gràcia, an artists’ quarter in Barcelona. Photo: Getty Images

Visitors watch the hourly “The Walk of the Apostles” performed by the Astronomical Clock on Old Town Square in Prague. It is one of several European cities that levy taxes on tourists. Photo: Getty Images

Lifestyle

Travel & Leisure

Barcelona is to end holiday apartment rentals amid a housing emergency. Destinations from Italy to Hawaii are eyeing similar measures


Faced with rising rents and a housing shortage, Barcelona says it will end apartment rentals to tourists by 2028. It comes as destinations such as New York and Venice take measures against overtourism.


Spain

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