The decision made headlines around the world, sparking surprise and threats of billion-euro lawsuits. But months after officials in Barcelona announced plans to rid the city of tourist flats by late 2028, the city’s mayor has described it as a “drastic” but sorely needed move to rein in the surging cost of housing. “It’s very drastic but it has to be because the situation is very, very difficult,” Jaume Collboni said in one of his first interviews with international media since the June announcement.
“In Barcelona, like other big European cities, the number one problem we have is housing.” The have seen rental prices in the city soar by 68% while the cost of buying a house has climbed 38%. As some residents complained of being priced out of the city, Collboni began eyeing up the 10,101 licences the city had handed out allowing accommodation to be rented to tourists through platforms such as Airbnb.
What the Socialists’ party mayor saw was a relatively swift way to bolster the city’s stock of residential homes while also curtailing some of the who descend on the city of 1.7 million annually. “Under the model of mass tourism that has colonised the city centre, we’ve seen two things fundamentally harmed: the right of access to housing, because housing is used for economic activity, and coexistence among neighbours, particularly in areas that have more tourist apartments,” said Collboni.
The city had long sought to grapple with this, on the number of tou.