The owners of tourist apartments in Barcelona, threatened with closure in 2029, have decided to go on the offensive. On Monday, September 16, the Apartur association, which represents nearly 7,000 of the 10,000 legal tourist accommodations listed in the Catalan capital, announced a flurry of appeals against the Generalitat, the local government.
“The decision to remove the tourist apartments means a loss of profits and threatens the recovery of the investments made by the owners. It is a form of expropriation, an attack on the right to property. The total of the complaints that we are collecting already represents more than 1 billion euros in compensation claims. And this is just the beginning…” warns Marian Muro, general director of Apartur. She does not hide her anger.
On June 21, the mayor of Barcelona, the socialist Jaume Collboni, caused a stir by announcing the elimination of all tourist apartments in the city by November 2028. His decision is based on a decree-law of the Generalitat, approved in November 2023 and limiting the validity period of the “tourist licenses” – which allow owners to rent out their accommodation to holidaymakers and visitors staying in the city.
“Negative effects of mass tourism”
Until now, these permits were perpetual. After the five-year period, the decree grants each municipality the power to renew them or not. In February, the Popular Party (PP, right) filed an appeal with the Constitutional Court. While waiting for the decision of the Spanish supreme judges, the mayor has taken the most radical decision: to eliminate Airbnb.
“The city cannot afford such a high number of tourist apartments in a context of obvious difficulties in accessing housing and the negative effects of mass tourism”, Mr Collboni justified himself. He recalled that in ten years, the price of rents had jumped by 68% on average, although since 2014 the city has banned any new opening of tourist accommodation. “Adding 10,000 apartments to the real estate market is a relevant decisionhe insisted again in July on Cadena Ser radio. This is the equivalent of ten years of average construction of private housing in the city (…) And nobody likes to have tourist apartments in their building.”
In fact, in Barcelona, the possible elimination of tourist apartments seems to have the support of residents. “This seems to me to be a very good measure: we need to regulate Airbnbs, focus on quality tourism that attracts people who respect the city and its inhabitants. And the apartments need to be used to house ussays Alvaro Molina, a computer programmer, sitting on a terrace in the central Poble Sec district with friends, who nod. I did my calculations and I still have to live with my parents for six years to hope to be able to buy an apartment.”, adds the 32-year-old.
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Source: Lemonde
