The city plans to stop issuing new or renewal licenses by 2029.
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.”
FULL STORY: Barcelona Plans to Ban All Short-Term Rentals for Tourists From 2029
Madrid Seeks to Sharply Curtail Short-Term Rentals
A suite of restrictions under consideration in Madrid would eliminate short-term rentals from 95 percent of the city.
Spain Fines Airbnb $75 Million After Crackdown on Unlicensed Rentals
The government took action after residents in tourist centers protested, blaming tourist rentals for a growing housing crisis.
Spain Moves to Ban 66,000 Airbnbs
The national government is requiring the short-term rental operator to remove thousands of illegal listings from its site as part of an effort to stem a growing housing crisis.
The state-sanctioned urbicide of Austin
People don’t kill cities. Freeways do.
US to reduce Colorado River water deliveries to Mexico
A new Colorado Treaty amendment reduces Mexico’s Colorado River water allocation by 250,000 acre feet.
New Jersey’s second-largest city bans standalone data centers
Jersey City will continue to allow co-location facilities, such as those meant for research institutions that store their own data.
Amtrak not solely to blame for New Jersey commuter rail's unreliability, report finds
A new study from the Garden State Initiative found that NJ Transit’s budget grew 20% across a 4 year period, but reliability declined significantly over the same period.
EPA erases limits on planet-warming pollution from power plants
Under Monday’s plan, power plants would still have some limits on how much mercury, arsenic and other contaminants they can emit.
Phoenix announces new on-demand transit service, more frequent RAPID buses
Both new services will launch in October, and are part of Phoenix's Project Effective Access Solutions for Easing Congestion.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
Eagle County Government
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Nashville Planning Department
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
Journal of the American Planning Association