Barcelona to Phase out All Short-Term Rentals

The city plans to stop issuing new or renewal licenses by 2029.

1 minute read

June 26, 2024, 9:00 AM PDT

By Diana Ionescu @aworkoffiction


Facades of old apartment buildings in Barcelona, Spain.

jeeweevh / Adobe Stock

Barcelona, Spain will enact a citywide ban on all new and renewed short-term rental licenses that will phase out STRs by 2029 in one of the most aggressive moves against the short-stay rental option, report Macarena Munoz Montijano and Thomas Gualtieri in Bloomberg CityLab.

Today, there are about 10,000 short-term rentals registered in the city, which officials say are driving up the cost of housing for local residents. “Rent prices per square meter in Barcelona increased 14% in the 12 months through April and are the highest among Spanish cities, according to Idealista, the country’s largest website for property listings.”

Cities like New York City have also implemented strict regulations governing STRs. “To date, Berlin went the furthest with restrictions, when it introduced a ban on short-stay lets of entire homes in 2016. After this blanket ban proved hard to implement, however, the city revoked the law in 2018, replacing it with looser restrictions and higher fines for breaking them.”

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