Barcelona's Plan to Combat Housing Crisis
The mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, has announced an ambitious plan to address the city's housing crisis by eliminating tourist apartment rentals by 2029. This move aims to make more housing units available for residents in a city that is struggling with skyrocketing rents and overtourism. Relying on a decree approved by Catalan elected officials last year, this initiative will prevent the renewal of licenses for tourist apartments, potentially freeing up 10,000 housing units for the rental or sale market.
According to the municipality, the licenses for tourist apartments, renewed for five years in November, will expire in November 2028. This means that from 2029, tourist apartments as we know them today will disappear from Barcelona. The city council justified this decision, stating that the high number of apartments used for tourist activities exacerbates the difficulty of accessing housing and contributes to the negative effects of tourist overpopulation.
The Broader Issue of Overtourism in Spain
Barcelona is not alone in facing the challenges of overtourism. Other popular destinations in Spain, such as the Canary Islands and Palma de Majorca, have also taken measures to curb the negative impacts of excessive tourism. For instance, residents in the Canary Islands began an indefinite hunger strike in April to protest against overtourism, while Palma de Majorca has banned the sale of alcohol in the evening in areas of excessive tourism.
Similarly, Binibeca Vell, a small village on Menorca, is considering a more drastic measure to preserve its community. With 800,000 tourists per year for only 200 inhabitants, Binibeca Vell has scheduled a referendum on whether to close itself to foreign visitors. This referendum, set for August 15, highlights the growing trend among popular tourist destinations to take significant steps to manage the influx of visitors and protect local communities.
- Rents in Barcelona have increased by 68% over the last ten years, with 10,101 homes currently licensed as tourist apartments. Despite measures taken by former mayor Ada Colau to regulate tourist expansion, the effects of overtourism have continued to impact housing, especially after the end of the Covid-19 pandemic.
- Several local associations in Barcelona have called for a demonstration on July 6 under the slogan 'Enough! Let's put limits on tourism!' This protest follows similar demonstrations in other major Spanish tourist destinations, emphasizing the widespread concern over overtourism across the country.
- Binibeca Vell, known as the 'Spanish Mykonos' for its aesthetic resemblance to the famous Cycladic island, has become a symbol of the overtourism crisis. The village's referendum on closing itself to foreign visitors underscores the extreme measures some communities are considering to preserve their way of life.
