Barcelona will ban AirBnb residences in a determined bid to cease rents spiralling and shield locals from the results of mass tourism.
Mayor Jaume Collboni pledged that there shall be no vacationer residences within the Spanish metropolis by 2029.
If laws is accredited by the Generalitat of Catalonia, municipal governments will impose the ban on AirBnbs by refusing to difficulty new licenses in addition to not renewing present ones.
Mr Collboni believes this transfer will open up the marketplace for extra short-term lets and make Barcelona extra inexpensive for younger individuals who have been compelled out because of hovering rents.
Rental costs in Barcelona have elevated by round 70 per cent within the final decade, whereas the price of shopping for a home has risen way more slowly at 39 per cent.
A household stroll previous anti-tourism graffiti in Barcelona
Mayor Jaume Collboni (pictured) pledged at a press convention in Barcelona that there shall be no vacationer residences within the Spanish metropolis by 2029.
The Spanish politician stated rents have been ‘skyrocketing’ and younger individuals and people on averages salaries have been being pushed out of the town because of unaffordable housing.
On Friday Mr Collboni stated: ‘We’d like housing provide to develop so that individuals do not need to maneuver out of the town and in order that housing costs don’t rise and begin to fall.’
A licensing system for AirBnbs was launched in Barcelona in 2011.
4 years later, former Mayor Ada Colau – who is understood for his anti-AirBnb stance – prevented property house owners from letting out single rooms, based on The Occasions.
In an extra crackdown on mass tourism, the Spanish metropolis raised its ‘tourism tax’.
Travellers can now anticipate to see a hefty €3.25 or $3.52 added to the foot of their lodging invoice for each evening spent in Barcelona.
Over 12 million vacationers visited the picturesque metropolis in 2023 – many flocking to sights such because the Sagrada Familia, Las Ramblas alley and Park Guell.
Damià Calvet, a councillor from the separatist get together Collectively for Catalonia, known as Mr Collboni’s new plans ‘improvised’, ‘ideological’ and ‘not primarily based on legality or the regulation of the rents themselves’.
Maria Harris, of trade physique, The Open Property Knowledge Affiliation, stated the Mayor’s determination ‘comes all the way down to politics’.
She added: ‘Loads of youthful persons are being compelled to depart the town.
‘A number of decrease revenue households cannot discover rental lodging. He [Mr Collboni] thinks the reply is to scale back the quantity of houses for tourism.’
Guests sunbathe on Barceloneta seaside in June 2021
A view of Barcelona from Park Guell
Park Guell is understood for its many mosaics and is a prime vacationer vacation spot in Barcelona
Vacationers stroll up and down Las Ramblas alley in Barcelona in April 2024
And the conflict on tourism wages on elsewhere in Spain.
Vacationers in Costa Blanca may very well be fined as much as €200 or £170 for getting souvenirs from unlicensed sellers.
In the meantime boozy holidaymakers shall be banned from consuming on public streets in Magaluf.
