The challenge
Tourist apartments were spreading through neighborhoods and pushing up rents.
The case
As tourist apartments spread through central neighborhoods and rents rose, Barcelona stopped granting new tourist apartment licenses in 2014, fined platforms including Airbnb for advertising unlicensed listings, and in 2017 set zones where tourist accommodation could not grow. In 2024 the city announced it would not renew any of its roughly 10,000 tourist apartment licenses, aiming to return them to long-term housing by November 2028. Results so far are disputed, and the phase-out faces legal challenges.
Why the results were mixed
Barcelona has gone further than almost any city in treating tourist rentals as a housing issue. Whether removing them meaningfully lowers rents is still being tested, and the result will be watched closely.
Sources
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