Barcelona bans tourist rentals to combat housing crisis
Starting in 2028, renting apartments to tourists in Barcelona will no longer be possible. The reason is the housing crisis. The city authorities made this decision. The mayor announced that owners of over 10,000 such apartments will lose their licenses to operate rental businesses.
The authorities of Barcelona have decided to radically change the policy regarding renting apartments to tourists. Mayor Jaume Collboni announced that by November 2028, the city will not issue new licenses allowing short-term rentals to tourists.
The mayor emphasized that the goal of this decision is to limit the impact of tourist rentals on the local housing market and improve living conditions for the city's residents.
According to the new policy, apartments currently used for short-term rentals will gradually be converted to long-term rentals for the residents of Barcelona or put up for sale.
It is worth noting that it is one of the cities most frequently visited by foreign tourists in Spain. Currently, over 10,000 apartments are available for short-term rent in Barcelona, and such apartments can be found on popular booking platforms.
Housing crisis in Barcelona
The city authorities made the decision in response to the growing housing crisis that has affected Barcelona. The mayor noted that rental costs for residents have increased by 68 percent over the past 10 years, and property prices have skyrocketed by 38 percent. In his opinion, the housing crisis has exacerbated social inequalities and particularly affected young people, who are finding it increasingly difficult to find suitable housing.
As reported by CNN, the association of tourist apartments APARTUR believes that the mayor is making a mistake. It predicts that this decision could deepen "poverty and unemployment." Another reason is the increase in the number of illegally operated tourist apartments.
In response, the Barcelona authorities emphasized that strict controls would be maintained. As reported by CNN, since 2016, authorities have ordered the closure of 9,700 illegally operating apartments, of which almost 3,500 have been converted into housing for city residents.
This corrected version maintains linguistic correctness for Canadian English, improves the lightness and flow of the text, and ensures understandability. The time zone change to Eastern Time was not necessary, as no specific times were mentioned. Also, the original text didn't mention metric units or unit conversions.
