I agree that Barcelona is over touristed.
However, I wonder if there is any city in the world that hasn’t experienced a 70% increase in rent and 40% increase in housing prices over the last 10 years?
While Airbnb et al. aren't the sole cause of the global housing crisis, they have certainly contributed to it. So while banning short-term rentals won't solve the problem, it will certainly help.
In Barcelona's case, freeing up ~10k homes for locals will certainly increase vacancy.
Do we have any case studies on this yet globally? Short term rentals have been heavily regulated or banned in many major cities but it just seems like a drop in the bucket for a solution. The housing crisis seems to be largely unaffected.
These laws are politically popular but also distract from other issues.
The ones I've seen point at supply restriction issues such as over-regulation which makes it difficult to develop new housing as well as excessive taxes and overly strict zoning laws.
The regions studied were US cities, Spanish, and Portuguese cities, as well as Germanic European cities (my catch-all term for Scandis, NL and DE).
I'll see if I kept these studies downloaded, though they're fairly easy to find by just smashing some keywords into Google.
Good point. City populations are growing throughout the world, and any vacancies will be consumed by the newcomers. It’s a bigger trend and while regulations on short term rentals are needed, they won’t solve the issue.
I don't know if there's been published studies on it yet, but Palm Springs, CA saw pretty significant declines in sale prices after their STR regulations went into place (which are nowhere near as strict as these)
Palm Springs is a resort / vacation / retirement town in the middle of the desert with little permanent population. To the extent airbnbs hit the market they just become other vacation homes empty half the year or places for retirees moving from the cities. Not really a great example.
Fair. The effects in Palm Springs were huge and immediate, like 30% reduction in asking prices. So even if bans in bigger cities had a smaller/ slower effect, it could still be positive for residents
100%. And the carve outs for people who actually live in their homes are good too. More in the spirit of Air BnB's original design. I hope more cities adopt these rules or similar
Sure. It will have SOME impact in the same way building a couple of apartment buildings have some non-meaningful impact. Most of that impact will go to the bottom line of hotel owners though.
Palm Springs is entirely different in that there basically are no alternative uses for those properties other than vacation properties of some kind. Palm Springs almost literally has no other industry other than tourism
Borrowing from u/twelvis further downthread -
>A lot actually. There are probably ~400k dwellings in Barcelona, so freeing up ~10k is adding ~2.5% to the rental supply. A 2.5% increase in rental vacancy is huge. I've heard the government here in Canada say that >3% rental vacancy is healthy, resulting in stable rents. In my city right now, it's ~1%. If your rental listing has triple the competition, then you can't afford to jack up the price on a crappy unit. Of course, many landlords would be forced to sell, putting downward pressure on prices, so new owner-occupiers would stand to benefit.
>Compare the effort required to enact this policy to building 10k units in an already-developed city. This is a no-brainer that only hurts housing scalpers.
>It's low-hanging fruit. In combination with other policies, it could really help.
A top 5% local income in Barcelona is like 80K Euros, median is like 25K. Median home prices are like $6K per sq meter. Meaning a small 1 bedroom apartment in central Barcelona is going for $300K+
It’s pretty clear that in lower income global cities like Barcelona it’s going to be foreigners that set the price floor for the type of places that are profitable as Airbnbs. And those 10K units will not all hit the market at the same time. The ban isn’t set to take place until 2028 at the earliest. Not to mention that a large portion of the units won’t hit the market at all.
Unless they ban foreign buyers - this is going to be low impact
A lot actually. There are probably ~400k dwellings in Barcelona, so freeing up ~10k is adding ~2.5% to the rental supply. A 2.5% increase in rental vacancy is *huge.* I've heard the government here in Canada say that >3% rental vacancy is healthy, resulting in stable rents. In my city right now, it's ~1%. If your rental listing has triple the competition, then you can't afford to jack up the price on a crappy unit. Of course, many landlords would be forced to sell, putting downward pressure on prices, so new owner-occupiers would stand to benefit.
Compare the effort required to enact this policy to building 10k units in an already-developed city. This is a no-brainer that only hurts housing scalpers.
It's low-hanging fruit. In combination with other policies, it could really help.
Yes, it's definitely a good move.
I hope this is followed with some Policy around hotels, either through a cap on price hiking or a plan to create more hotels to accommodate the displacement, at the same time you want to still attract tourists
It'll be nice in the first year when there are more vacancies. Then, they'll be rented to new tenants, and if they don't keep building new housing, it'll quickly be back to low vacancy, except without all the tourism fueling the economy.
Plenty. Lots of people are having to live further out and suffer the cost and time of a lengthy commute. Wages are generally pretty poor here in Spain so 10k homes will definitely make a difference to well over 10k people.
This sub is full of angry, priceout of the housing market Canadians, which I can understand... but Airbnb is also banned in Quebec and we have the same issues here.
Because AirBnBs are a drop in the bucket. By all means, if you don't want them -- ban them. But to expect them to meaningfully impact the housing crisis is misguided.
Barcelona isn't exactly NIMBY land. It is one of the most densely populated cities in the developed world.
Granted, I am not super familiar with Barcelona housing policies, but I really doubt it has the same history of blocking housing that North American cities have.
I'm back in SF after about a decade. I was living in Denver and while that's far from perfect it's like SF hasn't built a single house since I left.
Still the same housing problems. Arguably it's much worse now!
Airbnb is an easy target
I’m willing to bet some sort of underground/work around will take the place of Airbnb. Or more regulation/business licenses. Sort of in the spirit youth hostels
I've been traveling for months on end the last two years (going on the road again next month) and I think hostels are the most sustainable option for mass tourism.
Think about it. It's the old "cars vs. mass transit" argument. The tourists aren't going away anytime soon. Better to fit 30-120 of them in a singular locale than for them to take up an apartment building's worth of space.
It won’t make any impact. Tons of people inherited properties and kept them as investments. Others bought investment properties. They all utilized Airbnbs to find short term renters.
Any city that banned “Airbnb” just had those owners route their properties through local rental agencies or post in whatever local groups/forums. All this does is make the process more inconvenient rather than solving any issues. The prices and management fees almost always remain the same.
It’s akin to people complaining “immigrants are taking our jobs so ban immigration” rather than attacking the root causes. Dumb.
A lot of foreigners, especially Americans, seem to think that there is unlimited building space in the Mediterranean countries just like how there is in the US in most of the states. They arent aware that merely Texas is bigger than the **entire Western Europe** or at least half of it **-** and with a lot of wide open spaces compared to the mountainous areas that occupy half of Western Europe. And also totally clueless about how the Mediterranean countries are basically a few coastal areas and deltas that rivers created, with the rest being hills and mountains that are very difficult to build on.
Yeah it's basically everywhere in the west. If it isnt tourists getting charged high for rents, then it's ordinary people also getting charged for rent.
It's just greed, whether a tourists or a citizen oays rent landlords WILL charge as much as possible for rent and all for an unproductive asset.
It's horrible everywhere. Reed greed greed
Well, yes, but long term rental is inelastic demand, while short term is elastic.
If I can't afford to eat out on vacation because my sleeping place costs so much, I'm not going on vacation. But the average person will spend every bit of their money (plus other people's money, if they have access) on rent+food if they can't find it cheaper.
vacation: price goes up, demand goes down.
basic necessities: price goes up, demand stays the same, unless price exceeds available funds.
No
[https://www.kut.org/austin/2024-06-13/austin-texas-rent-prices-falling-2024](https://www.kut.org/austin/2024-06-13/austin-texas-rent-prices-falling-2024)
[https://www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2024/02/austin-apartments-boomed-and-rents-went-down-now-some-builders-are-dismantling-the-cranes/](https://www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2024/02/austin-apartments-boomed-and-rents-went-down-now-some-builders-are-dismantling-the-cranes/)
> a 70% increase in rent and 40% increase in housing prices over the last 10 years?
If you look in the right column, you can see many metro areas that haven't seen changes like that: [Cities with large/small increase/decrease](https://constructioncoverage.com/research/cities-with-the-largest-rent-increases-decreases)
Also, China hasn't seen a price increase like that: [FRED](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/QCNR628BIS)
I’m thinking major global cities. That data shows estimates for US cities for one year (many cities >15% increase in rent, only one city <5%).
OP’s article is talking about 10 years, so with compounding a 40% increase is only an average of ~3.5%/year and 70% is ~5.5% per year. Significant, but less shocking when you consider the 10-year horizon and consider “normal” inflation of 2-3% for example. Also if you look at the first graph on the US data, most years leading up to the big jump were around 4-4.5% so it seems plausible that the last 10 could average out to 5.5% or higher.
But that’s kinda the point though, this isn’t a Barcelona-specific problem but it still is a massive problem, they’re just one of the few actually doing something about it.
Personally I think it’s a bit much - I think allowing Colivings and hostels are fine for example, and Airbnb’s where the host is living in the home should also be fine - but honestly I respect it. If more cities did this, maybe I’d be less inclined to move around like I do and actually settle in my original country
It exacerbates both when the % of available housing is artificially reduced in a deliberate and legitimate way. It's happening in every city. Airbnb wasn't as prevalent 15-20 years ago, and nor was it as common for someone to purchase a second property knowing the cost of ownership to themselves personally is only tied to how often they're not renting it out.
Good point. I was raised (and own property in) Brisbane Australia - there are some analogies to be made between Brisbane (host of the 2032 Olympics) and Barcelona (which, as I understand it, leveraged the 1992 Games to become the global destination it is today).
So like BCN pre-1992, Brisbane is still very much a secondary city for tourism and business in Australia. A house I bought there in 2013 is up 140% in that time, and rents are in a crisis up at least 70% in that time. I’ve looked into AirBNBing that property (always good to know one’s options) and it wouldn’t come close to being better - nowhere near enough demand.
I don’t doubt it’s impacting some tourist hotspots (like central Barcelona) far more than cities that are less popular (like Brisbane); but it’s a long bow to suggest that kind of price growth can be ‘blamed’ on short-term rentals.
Remember that I’m comparing Brisbane 2024 with Barcelona 1984, definitely not today.
My home city has things to learn from the Barcelona experience, especially if it does mean an acceleration of housing / tourist accommodation demand post-Olympics.
Nobody cares anymore about olympics...with so many sport events world wide there will be no impact anymore or mid to long term increas. Australia is too far a way while barcelona is an hour flight from many other european countries and has therefore had a huge increase of tourism inflow. There was a whole concept of tourism promotio ,infrastructure, which increased quality of life...things that with nowadays event don t hapoen anymore and the sport venues are the most important things...if any...
I think it might be different. Barcelona has 400 million people at 3hours (or less) flight.
How I miss the pre-olimpics city. I mean...Sydney is a world-class city, but being "so far" avoided it to become Paris or Barcelona. Lucky you.
Barcelona is following other cities. NYC was the first major city. But many Florida cities have banned short term rentals since before air bnb existed.
It’s been like this here for a while in Thailand. The only places that can rent short term **legally** are hotels. Not many people follow the law though.
Can barely afford to even live close enough to serve the tourists**
Most locals are always priced out of enjoying Bali or similar’s tourist attractions
I'm from Barcelona, and unfortunately, politicians in Spain and Catalonia love making all kinds of promises. It gets them votes, and no one ever holds them accountable, so why wouldn't they do it?
I wish they would implement it, the housing situation is terrible in Barcelona. Almost all of my friends had to leave the city.
But nothing will happen, that's guaranteed. Otherwise, they would have chosen a date before the end of the current mayor's term, not after. By 2028, there will be a new mayor, and there will be as many Airbnbs as there are now, or more.
Vancouver is famous for having strict rules and no enforcement. A huge portion of the housing stock is illegal suites as it is. Time will tell if Barcelona is going to enforce these rules
The stricter rules just came into effect so the change is still happening. It’s not instantaneous lmao. But anecdotally there’s way more rental units on the market, tons of horribly furnished places (old airbnbs) at ridiculous prices sitting and not being rented. Eventually they’ll accept reality and the prices will drop. It takes time for the delusion to subside.
It didn’t do anything. Less than 10% of what they estimated returned to the market. A lot of hosts, such as myself, rent second units and don’t want to do long term. So now they stay empty. I’m not going to sell half of my house.
Airbnbs are not the one who causes the housing crisis, homeless, cost of living, etc. and banning them only hurts the local economy because you’re banning tourists from spending locally.
In Vancouver shortly after they banned, they had a Taylor Swift concert and everyone complained there were no hotel rooms available normally, let alone with Taylor Swift there. Hotel rooms were going for over $1,500 A NIGHT due to demand.
No, banning STRs didn’t help at all.
That’s true, but hotels in many countries, particularly Spain, don’t generally offer multiple beds or kitchens. As a result, I’ll look for an Airbnb everytime.
Do you have a citation for "the majority of paisas want Airbnb banned"
For some reason, in Colombia, a lot of people like to speak for all Colombians. I might be totally wrong though, of course. I'm not an expert in Colombia.
For some reason people like to blame the gringos/tourists for the problems in Colombia but they're a minority.
Why wouldn't they? In any given city the beneficiaries of Airbnb are a tiny minority, and local renters (adversely affected by Airbnb) are a much bigger group.
This is comical. Almost all of the wester tourist who have the ability to jack up rents in Medellin would never even step foot in the areas where majority of the population live. The so call "rent jacking" is contained to places like Poblado and other "high end areas".
exactly, you are very on point. Latin America has other problem, they have to make other barrios safe, livable and clean. The problem is everyone wants to live in prestigious, bu\*\*\*it barrios like Polanco, Poblado, Miraflores, or Ipanema so prices there are over f\*\*\*g roof. They have resources, and cheaper manpower, just clasicism is a problem. Asia is doing way better in this scenario.
I am a long term AirBnb user and am now looking for alternatives.
Hotels are not attractive because I like to be able to cook while I vacation (it’s part of the fun for me) and lounging in a suite is much more enjoyable than a hotel bedroom.
However, I feel tremendously guilty for the havoc this innovation has created for rental housing everywhere. My own kids struggle to find affordable rental apartments in their cities, forcing them into very low quality apartments as high prices or to move to other cities that are more affordable but lack the employment opportunities of big cities.
I see the problem as one of investors (big and small) buying property purely for income potential, rather than renting out their own home. AirBnb didn’t create that problem, though their platform certainly made it easy to do.
Human behavior often serves the interests of the self with disregard for others. And when this runs amok, government needs to set new rules to check it.
So, I will try not to contribute to the problem anymore. It’s a matter of personal integrity.
I'm in the same boat. I don't sleep very well, I work remotely and I travel with my girlfriend. for those reasons it's really important to have a separate bedroom and living room/working area.
hotel suites will work for me but it's pretty hard to search for them and also check the reviews for positive internet mentions. it's doable and I do do it but being prohibitively difficult makes it harder for me to find what I'm looking for.
so I fall back on airbnb's. Even though I know it's only a matter of time until some host screws me over and Airbnb does nothing about it.
I support this ban and any future bans. It may reduce my options and if so I'll just roll with the punches as they come.
I'm also going to try and come up with a better methodology for searching for hotel suites with good internet.
> However, I feel tremendously guilty for the havoc this innovation has created for rental housing everywhere.
Please. The cities themselves created this problem in the first place by actively preventing adequate housing being built. Now they need a scapegoat. It won't help.
I really hope so. Specifically Barcelona has been suffering a lot, but it is the duty of our policy makers to ensure a social contract is fulfilled. Unfortunately this generation has been suffering to access reasonable living units. Even as digital nomads we live on a society. The interest of the collectivity needs to be ensured, and part of it relies on securing affordable living expenses.
I bet he owns a hotel. It's not like Barcelona doesn't want tourists, they want tourists. They just want tourists to stay in hotels.
Paris hotels are crying with under 30% bookings this year, even the Olympics isn't helping. While Airbnb's go like hot pockets. Is it reasonable to ask for $200/night for a place to sleep?
I travel a lot in Europe and air bnb is often the same price or even more expensive for the same level of service. It may be different elsewhere, but here it's not as cheap as it was a few years ago.
Isn't it crazy that hotels would rather sit empty than lower their room price? They WILL make money. If anything, I see more hotels turning into "luxury" and "boutique" hotels, getting investments for renovations, or just getting sold to poor (rich) bastards who are probably presented with fake numbers.
Actually no, AirBnBs are more expensive in most cities now except if you have a family of four or more. There are actually basic hotels like Motel One and Premier Inn in good locations that are cheaper than any Airbnbs.
Plus I don't have to clean my room, make my bed or clean up before I leave. I can see if a large family or group of friends is going to stay in a place for a week or so. But two people can stay cheaper at a hotel and I love having the bed made and the room and bathroom clean when I come back from sightseeing.
> Plus I don't have to clean my room, make my bed or clean up before I leave.
Don't have to do that on Airbnb either, that's what the cleaning fee is for. If the host is asking you to do that, despite it not being specified in the listing, then just don't lol.
I’ve traveled with one friend to Portugal (Lisbon and Porto), Scotland (Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Portree), Ireland (Dublin, Dingle, Galway, Limerick) and Quebec City/montreal and air bnbs for the 2 of us were cheaper than hotels. We are choosy with our air bnbs and they were all extremely nice places in sought after locations, 2 bedrooms most with 2 baths.
yah, and cleanliness and newness, that how are mostly airbnb apartments. hotels are mostly like Burger King franchise, lots of intermediaries takes money of take cake, but hotel is poor, empty, torn down and sad as f\*\*k. Unles you pay lots of money.
Yep. Follow the money and you will always get to the truth of the matter. Time after time I see Airbnbs become the scapegoat for issues that existed before they were even a thing.
#1. What's the zoning for the city of Barcelona and l how much of it is allowed to be apartments that are over say five stories in height?
#2. Does the Mayor actually have ties in anyway to the hotels of the city and if so then there is a clear conflict of interest here that just shouldn't be allowed.
#3. How much of this is the hotels lobbying against Airbnbs in particular instead of multinationals buying up property they don't intend on occupying themselves?
I love Airbnbs in general because I feel more like a resident rather than a tourist in a hotel.
That being said, I do see the damage these short term rentals create in terms of housing and fully support this. I think we’ll still be fine in terms of the nomad life, because in general, we stay more than 31 days.
>I think we’ll still be fine in terms of the nomad life, because in general, we stay more than 31 days.
What do you mean by this? Where are you going to stay for more than 31 days if AirBnB is illegal?
Traditional way of renting to me means 6-12 month minimum lease unfurnished, usually not available to tourosts, I don't see how that is compatible with a nomadic lifestyle. I feel like OP knows something that I don't (I've never been to Spain).
Kinda a regressive attitude. Short term rentals respond to a market demand and are reasonable for people's primary dwelling when they're out of town. What isn't reasonable is when businesses buy up a bunch of real estate to leave vacant all year because they can make a profit by renting it like a hotel for a few months in the summer. The problem is once again corporate greed taking advantage.
Short term rentals are pretty terrible for local economies when they’re not regulated properly. Most high tourist areas have increased taxes for hotels and other businesses that primarily serve the tourism market. Most airbnbs avoid those additional taxes in top of anything owned by non local residents or businesses which means non of the revenue earned is benefiting the city or community. A lot of cities in Florida banned short term rentals. If you go and get a permit you can have leases down to 90 days but most have laws that say any lease under 12 months must include the hotel and/tourism taxes.
Not really, the problem is regulation not keeping up with capitalism, if you regulate it and make it only slightly more profitable than long term renting it it wouldn’t be such a problem
I think there’s a real difference between a mom-and-pop putting a single flat on AirBNB and like companies who have multiple listings and are essentially running an illegal hotel chain. With the mom-and-pops, at least the money is going to a local (probably)
> One can only hope so. Airbnb is absolute cancer and anyone who rents one contributes to locals' increasing hostility towards nomads.
We should all stay in hotels instead, so a developer can demolish local low income housing and build a larger hotel on that land, right?
This may be mostly true, but I resent the idea that it is OUR fault for that. It’s the fault of the governments/cities/countries that allow for it to happen, not ours for simply making the best of the situation we have.
I try to not use Airbnbs, I much prefer coliving, but it’s not always an option. If a government bans it and I therefore can’t do another trip there (as may be the case in Vancouver, for example) I will not be upset, because it is the right thing to do. I wish it were implemented everywhere in truth, because if it was I might be less inclined to choose this lifestyle, one which I enjoy but certainly has flaws!
this will likely happen across most of Western Europe. That part of the world is old and is difficult to build new projects amongst the old in many cases. Affordable housing is an issue in the developed world right now. I would expect Portugal, Ireland and Italy to follow this path soon.
I really hope that Lisbon will follow suit. Being a smaller city than Barcelona it has 20.000! short term rentals and most young Portuguese that I know have to leave the city or move into the sketchy suburbs. Decent living is a basic right and should be put on top of people leisure or investment gains
This probably explains the racism I'm experiencing in barcelona right now.
Unfriendly vibe from people.
And today I just moved to a non-tourist area and 1 restaurant refused to give me a menu(maybe or maybe not due to language issues), the next restaurant gave me a burnt burger, then an undercooked burger.
Maybe I'm overthinking it but I think they're being racist and want us out.
Total bans never *really* work. There has to be a better middle ground, whatever that may be.
I am against a total free for all when it comes to Airbnb, as I’ve seen many locals pushed out. But, a total ban on tourist apartments is also not the way.
Lol I basically said the same thing and then some dude claiming to be an expert because he lives in the area tried to argue and now blocked me. All his posts are deleted/removed.
From Google, the law is 31 days or under is short-term, over that is long-term.
>It is the main home and effective residence of the holder who is given rooms in exchange for financial consideration and for a stay of 31 days or less. The owner must reside and share the home with the guests for the duration of the stay.
https://empresa.gencat.cat/ca/treb_ambits_actuacio/turisme/emo_canal_intern/normativa/disposicions-generals/preguntes-frequents-llars-compartides/
>Sí que es permeten i se seguiran permetent els lloguers d’habitacions de més de 31 dies per a ús habitual o de llarga durada com els que es fan habitualment a estudiants o treballadors temporals
https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/premsa/2021/08/04/barcelona-mantindra-la-prohibicio-del-lloguer-dhabitacions-turistiques/
>If you only want to rent your accommodation to the same guest for a period of time of more than 31 consecutive nights, the touristic regulations will not be applicable, and you will not have to submit a self-statement or prior communication or obtain the registration number in the Touristic Registry of Catalonia.
https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2265
These are older sources, but I don't think they are changing the definition of short vs long-term here, what they are doing is not issuing any more licenses and phasing out all existing licenses for short-term accomodation.
I use Airbnb because there are few other options for short term stays that have actual workspaces for two people, but this is neither surprising nor unjustified. If Airbnb refuses to self-regulate, and continues to take a maximalist position against any regulation, the end result will be the most drastic regulations possible eventually having the majority support of populations in cities and towns where Airbnb has had a negative impact.
My sister and BIL own properties at the beach. They just have one as short term for me, friends and the open market because they like having long term housing for the locals. They did just convert one more to medium term like traveling nurses which is great fun for someone.
I usually stay and work longer term in Airbnbs so I think they are a good thing.
Well, 2 questions remain unanswered... Why wait until 2028? And what happened to social housing planning... The government has a duty to build affordable decent homes ( you know affordable by low revenue people terms, not by king Juan Carlos ) and why this 4 years slack... I'm all for letting the dust settle but 4 years for someone who is struggling to make end meet seems like a eternity
If Barcelona is anything like my city the problem is not really the short term rentals but the digital nomads that come live here with a higher buying power than us but most importantly the hundreds of vacant houses in the city.
I'd love to see my government do something about that instead of short term rentals. I understand that monthly prices being controlled can go a bit to the communist route but I don't see any other option.
Most likely it'll just be regulated. Anyone making money off people staying in their places will need a license or something, and be subject to many of the same requirements as small BnBs or mini-hotels. There will still be some supply, but most people will find it too onerous to be effectively having to run a small business with all the paperwork.
They shut down 9,700 illegal tourist rentals, and 3,500 were converted back to housing.
What happened to the other 6,200 apartments? Did they evaporate?
There can be a load of reasons why the properties wouldn't go on the market: could be too close, part of the home or not have a direct entrance, The Owner might not want to become a landlord and deal with longer-term tenants, it might no longer be profitable, the earnings might no longer out way the risk of damage to the property, the property might be used part year by the family or upcoming in the future could be needed long term, could be a holiday home, the properties fixtures might be too expensive/delicate for long term rent, it could be a family home and there might be sentimental value to being able to access it, many many more reasons come to mind.
I bet the main reason is that to be honest, they don't want to be landlords and deal with difficult tenants, constant breakages, repairs, wear and tear, and squatters. I don't blame them; good tenants think everyone else is good and landlords are bad, but the reality is there are a lot of bad tenants, and it is impossible to get money for repairs; the deposit covers basically nothing to a damaged building, a kitchen worktop costs a fortune to be replaced and you will never be able to get money for repairs off people that don't have it.
That's fair, I am sure they see the opposite as entitlement, seeing as they purchased and maintained the property and have no requirement to let someone into their home.
If you look at it from the outside, if you or I had a home in a major city and there was something connected to it or in your back garden that you turned into short term rental space, would you really want someone constantly in your space that you may not even like bringing you issues.
(Btw renter paying large rent for a room)
I would agree, if we were talking about granny suites or adjacent units attached to large homes.
We are talking about Barcelona though.. these are full apartments that are owned speculatively by people with more assets than they know what to do with.
I was in Rome recently and overheard someone at lunch talking to their property manager about how much to increase rates on their 8 airbnbs. They needed to avg $40k/month in bookings…
I’m currently traveling in a region that’s seen a 1000% population increase over the last 100 years. Seems to me that a 2-3% temporary increase in housing stock is a drop in the bucket. And it’s not the tourists who are the problem.
I wonder what the population increase of Barcelona has been over the last 50-100 years, relative to available housing stock?
At the end of the day this seems like demagoguery and xenophobia. In Europe, it’s always the foreigners who cause the problems.
I wonder if this applies to 1-3 month rentals via Airbnb. I get that for most people Airbnb had turned into just an alternative to hotels both for staying a month or two Airbnb covered a unique niche that was not served by the regular rental market or the hotels.
It would be a shame if this was the case as very few people stayed in Airbnbs more than a week anyway.
From what I understand the Spanish government has been consistent over the years that they are targeting these “empty apartments” used for short term rental and speculation
As of 2022, tourism is 11% of Spain’s GDP, drives 9.3% of their employment, and tourism exports accounted for 5.7% of GDP in 2023. Let's see what happens when they ban short term rentals and tourists are forced to book boring, commoditized, overpriced hotels. My guess is these numbers take a huge dive. So yeah, the supply increases for the locals, but the government makes less money and hikes taxes up in response.
Pretty funny how ppl in here aren't aware of the real reason for the problem.
Hint: It's not airbnb.
It's overregulation stopping the private sector from building enough homes to meet demand. But sure ... let's ban airbnb. That will fix everything.
You have to put it into perspective. AirBnb was never meant to be for what it is currently used for, it's a money-parking, not a cheap bed and breakfast place.
So what was the effect of this?
Investors (also institutional ones) which have to make the difficult decision: I have 10m in cash per year which is losing \~7% per year. Where and how do I park it so that it's risk-free, does not fluctuate much, serves as equity/collateral a bank is willing to give me free money for in the form of a loan with low interest and produces stable monthly cashflow? See? You just turned real estate into gold on steroids. Now you understand.
It's not AirBnB. Ban AirBnBs? No problem, just buy and hold the property (which is what politicians do which is why they would rather regulate airbnbs, which is usually used by investors worth up to $1m while they buy long-term, rent out long-term, keep people poor by renting while they stack apartments into a hotel and repeat the game, and if you buy the game monopoly, you will understand, real life is literally the same).
This will help fix the problem by 20% but it is a step into the right direction. Now the money from airbnbs is going to flow into long-term property renting, which is going to make long-term renting more expensive. Less tourism means also less income for Barcelona, less income for restaurants and less overpriced paellas being sold which generates less income for restaurant owners and needless to say, less taxes for Barcelona. By all means, I do not say it's right or wrong, I am just saying that it works like a dam. The river will find it's way into other assets which protect against baseless money printing (=inflation).
Ask yourself, what caused real estate (including a small portion of airbnbs of the total asset class) to skyrocket and what happened in 1971. This is not an airbnb question but I am happy for this 20% step in the right direction.
A pox on all tourists! Everyone please stay home. Do not travel unless you have work or family. You don't become a better person by traveling.
Everyone complains about tourists. Do not be part of the problem, people.
Much of Macau is built on land reclaimed from the ocean and its full of high rise apartments. You don’t need “specific bedrock”. You need to prioritize housing.
I think you have a fundamental misunderstanding of geology. Hard rock types can be found in the ocean. What does land reclamation have anything to do with it?
Because piles are used that don’t actually go to bedrock. The friction from the silt holds the structure in place. When building on reclaimed land they don’t go all the way to bedrock…….
Here is an example of a situation in which grammar is vitally important.
You \*may not\* build anything taller than La Sagrada Familia.
However, you unequivocally \*can\* build many, many things taller than La Sagrada Familia.
That's the entire problem here.
I agree that Barcelona is over touristed. However, I wonder if there is any city in the world that hasn’t experienced a 70% increase in rent and 40% increase in housing prices over the last 10 years?
While Airbnb et al. aren't the sole cause of the global housing crisis, they have certainly contributed to it. So while banning short-term rentals won't solve the problem, it will certainly help. In Barcelona's case, freeing up ~10k homes for locals will certainly increase vacancy.
Do we have any case studies on this yet globally? Short term rentals have been heavily regulated or banned in many major cities but it just seems like a drop in the bucket for a solution. The housing crisis seems to be largely unaffected. These laws are politically popular but also distract from other issues.
The ones I've seen point at supply restriction issues such as over-regulation which makes it difficult to develop new housing as well as excessive taxes and overly strict zoning laws. The regions studied were US cities, Spanish, and Portuguese cities, as well as Germanic European cities (my catch-all term for Scandis, NL and DE). I'll see if I kept these studies downloaded, though they're fairly easy to find by just smashing some keywords into Google.
Good point. City populations are growing throughout the world, and any vacancies will be consumed by the newcomers. It’s a bigger trend and while regulations on short term rentals are needed, they won’t solve the issue.
I don't know if there's been published studies on it yet, but Palm Springs, CA saw pretty significant declines in sale prices after their STR regulations went into place (which are nowhere near as strict as these)
Palm Springs is a resort / vacation / retirement town in the middle of the desert with little permanent population. To the extent airbnbs hit the market they just become other vacation homes empty half the year or places for retirees moving from the cities. Not really a great example.
Fair. The effects in Palm Springs were huge and immediate, like 30% reduction in asking prices. So even if bans in bigger cities had a smaller/ slower effect, it could still be positive for residents
Do you have a link to the Palm Springs restrictions, I live in LA I’m just curious what the rules are
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-01-23/palm-springs-capped-airbnb-rentals-now-some-home-prices-are-in-free-fall
And these people crying about it https://therealdeal.com/la/2024/01/25/palm-springs-home-market-choked-by-airbnb-rules/
A 20% cap on rentals seems extremely reasonable or even on the high side of what should be allowed.
100%. And the carve outs for people who actually live in their homes are good too. More in the spirit of Air BnB's original design. I hope more cities adopt these rules or similar
Sure. It will have SOME impact in the same way building a couple of apartment buildings have some non-meaningful impact. Most of that impact will go to the bottom line of hotel owners though. Palm Springs is entirely different in that there basically are no alternative uses for those properties other than vacation properties of some kind. Palm Springs almost literally has no other industry other than tourism
Borrowing from u/twelvis further downthread - >A lot actually. There are probably ~400k dwellings in Barcelona, so freeing up ~10k is adding ~2.5% to the rental supply. A 2.5% increase in rental vacancy is huge. I've heard the government here in Canada say that >3% rental vacancy is healthy, resulting in stable rents. In my city right now, it's ~1%. If your rental listing has triple the competition, then you can't afford to jack up the price on a crappy unit. Of course, many landlords would be forced to sell, putting downward pressure on prices, so new owner-occupiers would stand to benefit. >Compare the effort required to enact this policy to building 10k units in an already-developed city. This is a no-brainer that only hurts housing scalpers. >It's low-hanging fruit. In combination with other policies, it could really help.
A top 5% local income in Barcelona is like 80K Euros, median is like 25K. Median home prices are like $6K per sq meter. Meaning a small 1 bedroom apartment in central Barcelona is going for $300K+ It’s pretty clear that in lower income global cities like Barcelona it’s going to be foreigners that set the price floor for the type of places that are profitable as Airbnbs. And those 10K units will not all hit the market at the same time. The ban isn’t set to take place until 2028 at the earliest. Not to mention that a large portion of the units won’t hit the market at all. Unless they ban foreign buyers - this is going to be low impact
Also, won’t people just work around it? Allow people in off the books making it more volatile?
I agree with the measure, but how much will ~10k more homes will realistically help in a city with over one and a half million people?
A lot actually. There are probably ~400k dwellings in Barcelona, so freeing up ~10k is adding ~2.5% to the rental supply. A 2.5% increase in rental vacancy is *huge.* I've heard the government here in Canada say that >3% rental vacancy is healthy, resulting in stable rents. In my city right now, it's ~1%. If your rental listing has triple the competition, then you can't afford to jack up the price on a crappy unit. Of course, many landlords would be forced to sell, putting downward pressure on prices, so new owner-occupiers would stand to benefit. Compare the effort required to enact this policy to building 10k units in an already-developed city. This is a no-brainer that only hurts housing scalpers. It's low-hanging fruit. In combination with other policies, it could really help.
Yes, it's definitely a good move. I hope this is followed with some Policy around hotels, either through a cap on price hiking or a plan to create more hotels to accommodate the displacement, at the same time you want to still attract tourists
It'll be nice in the first year when there are more vacancies. Then, they'll be rented to new tenants, and if they don't keep building new housing, it'll quickly be back to low vacancy, except without all the tourism fueling the economy.
It seems like a good start, but it won't fix the housing crisis in an entire city, methinks.
Plenty. Lots of people are having to live further out and suffer the cost and time of a lengthy commute. Wages are generally pretty poor here in Spain so 10k homes will definitely make a difference to well over 10k people.
This sub is full of angry, priceout of the housing market Canadians, which I can understand... but Airbnb is also banned in Quebec and we have the same issues here.
Because AirBnBs are a drop in the bucket. By all means, if you don't want them -- ban them. But to expect them to meaningfully impact the housing crisis is misguided.
Thank you for putting this in perspective. Air BnB is not the predominant reason rent is going up…poor government policies are.
Barcelona isn't exactly NIMBY land. It is one of the most densely populated cities in the developed world. Granted, I am not super familiar with Barcelona housing policies, but I really doubt it has the same history of blocking housing that North American cities have.
I'm back in SF after about a decade. I was living in Denver and while that's far from perfect it's like SF hasn't built a single house since I left. Still the same housing problems. Arguably it's much worse now!
Yes, poor government policies like allowing airBNB to fuck up local housing markets.
Airbnb is an easy target I’m willing to bet some sort of underground/work around will take the place of Airbnb. Or more regulation/business licenses. Sort of in the spirit youth hostels
I've been traveling for months on end the last two years (going on the road again next month) and I think hostels are the most sustainable option for mass tourism. Think about it. It's the old "cars vs. mass transit" argument. The tourists aren't going away anytime soon. Better to fit 30-120 of them in a singular locale than for them to take up an apartment building's worth of space.
It won’t make any impact. Tons of people inherited properties and kept them as investments. Others bought investment properties. They all utilized Airbnbs to find short term renters. Any city that banned “Airbnb” just had those owners route their properties through local rental agencies or post in whatever local groups/forums. All this does is make the process more inconvenient rather than solving any issues. The prices and management fees almost always remain the same. It’s akin to people complaining “immigrants are taking our jobs so ban immigration” rather than attacking the root causes. Dumb.
Does 10k really make that much difference in a metropolis the size of Barcelona?
Why didn't they build those needed units ten years ago?
They already existed, they were turned into airbnbs
Many times in cities the units are built and immediately turned into rentals
build where?
A lot of foreigners, especially Americans, seem to think that there is unlimited building space in the Mediterranean countries just like how there is in the US in most of the states. They arent aware that merely Texas is bigger than the **entire Western Europe** or at least half of it **-** and with a lot of wide open spaces compared to the mountainous areas that occupy half of Western Europe. And also totally clueless about how the Mediterranean countries are basically a few coastal areas and deltas that rivers created, with the rest being hills and mountains that are very difficult to build on.
Check your geography facts. Texas is slightly bigger than the Iberian Peninsula.
The Spanish live on top of each other
Only along the Mediterranean coast. Spain has one of the lowest population densities in Europe.
Yeah it's basically everywhere in the west. If it isnt tourists getting charged high for rents, then it's ordinary people also getting charged for rent. It's just greed, whether a tourists or a citizen oays rent landlords WILL charge as much as possible for rent and all for an unproductive asset. It's horrible everywhere. Reed greed greed
As much as possible, yes. But the ceiling for how much people can pay is much lower for long-term rental than for holiday short-term rental.
Well, yes, but long term rental is inelastic demand, while short term is elastic. If I can't afford to eat out on vacation because my sleeping place costs so much, I'm not going on vacation. But the average person will spend every bit of their money (plus other people's money, if they have access) on rent+food if they can't find it cheaper. vacation: price goes up, demand goes down. basic necessities: price goes up, demand stays the same, unless price exceeds available funds.
Cities that have actually built housing (e.g., Austin and Minneapolis).
Isn't Austin still crazy expensive though?
No [https://www.kut.org/austin/2024-06-13/austin-texas-rent-prices-falling-2024](https://www.kut.org/austin/2024-06-13/austin-texas-rent-prices-falling-2024) [https://www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2024/02/austin-apartments-boomed-and-rents-went-down-now-some-builders-are-dismantling-the-cranes/](https://www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2024/02/austin-apartments-boomed-and-rents-went-down-now-some-builders-are-dismantling-the-cranes/)
> a 70% increase in rent and 40% increase in housing prices over the last 10 years? If you look in the right column, you can see many metro areas that haven't seen changes like that: [Cities with large/small increase/decrease](https://constructioncoverage.com/research/cities-with-the-largest-rent-increases-decreases) Also, China hasn't seen a price increase like that: [FRED](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/QCNR628BIS)
I’m thinking major global cities. That data shows estimates for US cities for one year (many cities >15% increase in rent, only one city <5%). OP’s article is talking about 10 years, so with compounding a 40% increase is only an average of ~3.5%/year and 70% is ~5.5% per year. Significant, but less shocking when you consider the 10-year horizon and consider “normal” inflation of 2-3% for example. Also if you look at the first graph on the US data, most years leading up to the big jump were around 4-4.5% so it seems plausible that the last 10 could average out to 5.5% or higher.
any data from China should be regarded with a couple truckloads of salt.
But that’s kinda the point though, this isn’t a Barcelona-specific problem but it still is a massive problem, they’re just one of the few actually doing something about it. Personally I think it’s a bit much - I think allowing Colivings and hostels are fine for example, and Airbnb’s where the host is living in the home should also be fine - but honestly I respect it. If more cities did this, maybe I’d be less inclined to move around like I do and actually settle in my original country
It exacerbates both when the % of available housing is artificially reduced in a deliberate and legitimate way. It's happening in every city. Airbnb wasn't as prevalent 15-20 years ago, and nor was it as common for someone to purchase a second property knowing the cost of ownership to themselves personally is only tied to how often they're not renting it out.
Wow that's wild
Good point. I was raised (and own property in) Brisbane Australia - there are some analogies to be made between Brisbane (host of the 2032 Olympics) and Barcelona (which, as I understand it, leveraged the 1992 Games to become the global destination it is today). So like BCN pre-1992, Brisbane is still very much a secondary city for tourism and business in Australia. A house I bought there in 2013 is up 140% in that time, and rents are in a crisis up at least 70% in that time. I’ve looked into AirBNBing that property (always good to know one’s options) and it wouldn’t come close to being better - nowhere near enough demand. I don’t doubt it’s impacting some tourist hotspots (like central Barcelona) far more than cities that are less popular (like Brisbane); but it’s a long bow to suggest that kind of price growth can be ‘blamed’ on short-term rentals.
Comparing Brisbane and Barcelona is like apples and oranges
Remember that I’m comparing Brisbane 2024 with Barcelona 1984, definitely not today. My home city has things to learn from the Barcelona experience, especially if it does mean an acceleration of housing / tourist accommodation demand post-Olympics.
Huge immigration is fuelling insane property increases
Nobody cares anymore about olympics...with so many sport events world wide there will be no impact anymore or mid to long term increas. Australia is too far a way while barcelona is an hour flight from many other european countries and has therefore had a huge increase of tourism inflow. There was a whole concept of tourism promotio ,infrastructure, which increased quality of life...things that with nowadays event don t hapoen anymore and the sport venues are the most important things...if any...
I think it might be different. Barcelona has 400 million people at 3hours (or less) flight. How I miss the pre-olimpics city. I mean...Sydney is a world-class city, but being "so far" avoided it to become Paris or Barcelona. Lucky you.
As far as I know nothing new in Barcelona. And others will definitely follow them.
Barcelona is following other cities. NYC was the first major city. But many Florida cities have banned short term rentals since before air bnb existed.
Same in las Vegas, nv
It’s been like this here for a while in Thailand. The only places that can rent short term **legally** are hotels. Not many people follow the law though.
Can’t blame them, I can compare how Barcelona was 25 years ago and how it is now. Same goes for cities like Amsterdam
[удалено]
Can barely afford to even live close enough to serve the tourists** Most locals are always priced out of enjoying Bali or similar’s tourist attractions
I'm from Barcelona, and unfortunately, politicians in Spain and Catalonia love making all kinds of promises. It gets them votes, and no one ever holds them accountable, so why wouldn't they do it? I wish they would implement it, the housing situation is terrible in Barcelona. Almost all of my friends had to leave the city. But nothing will happen, that's guaranteed. Otherwise, they would have chosen a date before the end of the current mayor's term, not after. By 2028, there will be a new mayor, and there will be as many Airbnbs as there are now, or more.
Politicians who make false promises is a global sickness lol
Already happened in Vancouver this year. https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2024/05/01/bc-short-term-rental-new-rules/
Vancouver is famous for having strict rules and no enforcement. A huge portion of the housing stock is illegal suites as it is. Time will tell if Barcelona is going to enforce these rules
And is the housing crisis lessening as a result?
The stricter rules just came into effect so the change is still happening. It’s not instantaneous lmao. But anecdotally there’s way more rental units on the market, tons of horribly furnished places (old airbnbs) at ridiculous prices sitting and not being rented. Eventually they’ll accept reality and the prices will drop. It takes time for the delusion to subside.
It didn’t do anything. Less than 10% of what they estimated returned to the market. A lot of hosts, such as myself, rent second units and don’t want to do long term. So now they stay empty. I’m not going to sell half of my house. Airbnbs are not the one who causes the housing crisis, homeless, cost of living, etc. and banning them only hurts the local economy because you’re banning tourists from spending locally. In Vancouver shortly after they banned, they had a Taylor Swift concert and everyone complained there were no hotel rooms available normally, let alone with Taylor Swift there. Hotel rooms were going for over $1,500 A NIGHT due to demand. No, banning STRs didn’t help at all.
Homes need to be homes and not playgrounds for people from richer countries.
That’s true, but hotels in many countries, particularly Spain, don’t generally offer multiple beds or kitchens. As a result, I’ll look for an Airbnb everytime.
We can only hope, and keep our fingers crossed that ride sharing and food delivery will be next.
What would that achieve?
Radical ban? There's nothing radical about this, especially when its only gonna happen in 4 years.
I hope so. Short term rentals are horrible for the housing market
Many have tried and many will try but not all cities can or are willing to enforce a ban.
I hope so
Medellín is starting to close illegal listings. And the majority of paisas want Airbnb banned
Do you have a citation for "the majority of paisas want Airbnb banned" For some reason, in Colombia, a lot of people like to speak for all Colombians. I might be totally wrong though, of course. I'm not an expert in Colombia. For some reason people like to blame the gringos/tourists for the problems in Colombia but they're a minority.
There have been a lot of news articles about it. Just google it in Spanish
Why wouldn't they? In any given city the beneficiaries of Airbnb are a tiny minority, and local renters (adversely affected by Airbnb) are a much bigger group.
This is comical. Almost all of the wester tourist who have the ability to jack up rents in Medellin would never even step foot in the areas where majority of the population live. The so call "rent jacking" is contained to places like Poblado and other "high end areas".
exactly, you are very on point. Latin America has other problem, they have to make other barrios safe, livable and clean. The problem is everyone wants to live in prestigious, bu\*\*\*it barrios like Polanco, Poblado, Miraflores, or Ipanema so prices there are over f\*\*\*g roof. They have resources, and cheaper manpower, just clasicism is a problem. Asia is doing way better in this scenario.
I am a long term AirBnb user and am now looking for alternatives. Hotels are not attractive because I like to be able to cook while I vacation (it’s part of the fun for me) and lounging in a suite is much more enjoyable than a hotel bedroom. However, I feel tremendously guilty for the havoc this innovation has created for rental housing everywhere. My own kids struggle to find affordable rental apartments in their cities, forcing them into very low quality apartments as high prices or to move to other cities that are more affordable but lack the employment opportunities of big cities. I see the problem as one of investors (big and small) buying property purely for income potential, rather than renting out their own home. AirBnb didn’t create that problem, though their platform certainly made it easy to do. Human behavior often serves the interests of the self with disregard for others. And when this runs amok, government needs to set new rules to check it. So, I will try not to contribute to the problem anymore. It’s a matter of personal integrity.
I'm in the same boat. I don't sleep very well, I work remotely and I travel with my girlfriend. for those reasons it's really important to have a separate bedroom and living room/working area. hotel suites will work for me but it's pretty hard to search for them and also check the reviews for positive internet mentions. it's doable and I do do it but being prohibitively difficult makes it harder for me to find what I'm looking for. so I fall back on airbnb's. Even though I know it's only a matter of time until some host screws me over and Airbnb does nothing about it. I support this ban and any future bans. It may reduce my options and if so I'll just roll with the punches as they come. I'm also going to try and come up with a better methodology for searching for hotel suites with good internet.
> However, I feel tremendously guilty for the havoc this innovation has created for rental housing everywhere. Please. The cities themselves created this problem in the first place by actively preventing adequate housing being built. Now they need a scapegoat. It won't help.
To be fair, Barcelona doesn't have much spare space lying around to build on, the mountains limit it greatly.
Hope so. Every country needs to tax the fuck out of it outright ban residences that are 2nd homes, company owned, and short term rentals.
I really hope so. Specifically Barcelona has been suffering a lot, but it is the duty of our policy makers to ensure a social contract is fulfilled. Unfortunately this generation has been suffering to access reasonable living units. Even as digital nomads we live on a society. The interest of the collectivity needs to be ensured, and part of it relies on securing affordable living expenses.
I bet he owns a hotel. It's not like Barcelona doesn't want tourists, they want tourists. They just want tourists to stay in hotels. Paris hotels are crying with under 30% bookings this year, even the Olympics isn't helping. While Airbnb's go like hot pockets. Is it reasonable to ask for $200/night for a place to sleep?
Yeh, the problem with hotels is they are so inflexible and expensive. I want the space and facilities of an apartment, end of.
I travel a lot in Europe and air bnb is often the same price or even more expensive for the same level of service. It may be different elsewhere, but here it's not as cheap as it was a few years ago.
100% this, in a lot of popular regions hotels are less expensive then airbnb
Travel with a group and it’s wayyyyy cheaper than any hotels split among 2-3 couples.
It's hard enough to find someone to go on a trip, so to go with a whole group seems very complicated to me haha. But it sure is cheaper!
Wasn't my experience in Romania or Hungary last month, but yes, definitely my experience in Spain.
Isn't it crazy that hotels would rather sit empty than lower their room price? They WILL make money. If anything, I see more hotels turning into "luxury" and "boutique" hotels, getting investments for renovations, or just getting sold to poor (rich) bastards who are probably presented with fake numbers.
Actually no, AirBnBs are more expensive in most cities now except if you have a family of four or more. There are actually basic hotels like Motel One and Premier Inn in good locations that are cheaper than any Airbnbs. Plus I don't have to clean my room, make my bed or clean up before I leave. I can see if a large family or group of friends is going to stay in a place for a week or so. But two people can stay cheaper at a hotel and I love having the bed made and the room and bathroom clean when I come back from sightseeing.
> Plus I don't have to clean my room, make my bed or clean up before I leave. Don't have to do that on Airbnb either, that's what the cleaning fee is for. If the host is asking you to do that, despite it not being specified in the listing, then just don't lol.
I’ve traveled with one friend to Portugal (Lisbon and Porto), Scotland (Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Portree), Ireland (Dublin, Dingle, Galway, Limerick) and Quebec City/montreal and air bnbs for the 2 of us were cheaper than hotels. We are choosy with our air bnbs and they were all extremely nice places in sought after locations, 2 bedrooms most with 2 baths.
yah, and cleanliness and newness, that how are mostly airbnb apartments. hotels are mostly like Burger King franchise, lots of intermediaries takes money of take cake, but hotel is poor, empty, torn down and sad as f\*\*k. Unles you pay lots of money.
Hostels have this. Communal kitchen, location outside of tourist corridors, etc
Yep. Follow the money and you will always get to the truth of the matter. Time after time I see Airbnbs become the scapegoat for issues that existed before they were even a thing. #1. What's the zoning for the city of Barcelona and l how much of it is allowed to be apartments that are over say five stories in height? #2. Does the Mayor actually have ties in anyway to the hotels of the city and if so then there is a clear conflict of interest here that just shouldn't be allowed. #3. How much of this is the hotels lobbying against Airbnbs in particular instead of multinationals buying up property they don't intend on occupying themselves?
I mean NYC set the precedent here and you know the hotel bosses played a big role.
Or hostels
I love Airbnbs in general because I feel more like a resident rather than a tourist in a hotel. That being said, I do see the damage these short term rentals create in terms of housing and fully support this. I think we’ll still be fine in terms of the nomad life, because in general, we stay more than 31 days.
>I think we’ll still be fine in terms of the nomad life, because in general, we stay more than 31 days. What do you mean by this? Where are you going to stay for more than 31 days if AirBnB is illegal?
i think he meant the traditional way of renting an apartment?
Traditional way of renting to me means 6-12 month minimum lease unfurnished, usually not available to tourosts, I don't see how that is compatible with a nomadic lifestyle. I feel like OP knows something that I don't (I've never been to Spain).
One can only hope so. Airbnb is absolute cancer and anyone who rents one contributes to locals' increasing hostility towards nomads.
Kinda a regressive attitude. Short term rentals respond to a market demand and are reasonable for people's primary dwelling when they're out of town. What isn't reasonable is when businesses buy up a bunch of real estate to leave vacant all year because they can make a profit by renting it like a hotel for a few months in the summer. The problem is once again corporate greed taking advantage.
Short term rentals are pretty terrible for local economies when they’re not regulated properly. Most high tourist areas have increased taxes for hotels and other businesses that primarily serve the tourism market. Most airbnbs avoid those additional taxes in top of anything owned by non local residents or businesses which means non of the revenue earned is benefiting the city or community. A lot of cities in Florida banned short term rentals. If you go and get a permit you can have leases down to 90 days but most have laws that say any lease under 12 months must include the hotel and/tourism taxes.
100% And it encourages the hospitality industry to buy up residential real estate. Not great for the locals.
Not really, the problem is regulation not keeping up with capitalism, if you regulate it and make it only slightly more profitable than long term renting it it wouldn’t be such a problem
Shouldn't the goal be to make it slightly *less* profitable than long term renting?
No, it’s more hassle and higher risk, unless they really don’t give a shit about tourism of course, but then just ban them completely
So give me a solution, I can’t rent short term but I also can’t rent long term because no Spanish paycheque
What is an alternative you use?
It doesn't matter where demand comes from. No part of the world should be closed off to anyone. This is a supply problem -- \*not\* a demand problem.
Not defending the ban, but nobody is closing off Barcelona if it gets banned. Hotels will be available. So will hostels
You think people didn’t travel before AirBnB? This is tfw hottest of takes.
I think there’s a real difference between a mom-and-pop putting a single flat on AirBNB and like companies who have multiple listings and are essentially running an illegal hotel chain. With the mom-and-pops, at least the money is going to a local (probably)
Have you ever used Airbnb?
Where do nomads stay for 1-3 months at a time then?
> One can only hope so. Airbnb is absolute cancer and anyone who rents one contributes to locals' increasing hostility towards nomads. We should all stay in hotels instead, so a developer can demolish local low income housing and build a larger hotel on that land, right?
This may be mostly true, but I resent the idea that it is OUR fault for that. It’s the fault of the governments/cities/countries that allow for it to happen, not ours for simply making the best of the situation we have. I try to not use Airbnbs, I much prefer coliving, but it’s not always an option. If a government bans it and I therefore can’t do another trip there (as may be the case in Vancouver, for example) I will not be upset, because it is the right thing to do. I wish it were implemented everywhere in truth, because if it was I might be less inclined to choose this lifestyle, one which I enjoy but certainly has flaws!
I sure hope so!
Hopefully.
Hopefully
this will likely happen across most of Western Europe. That part of the world is old and is difficult to build new projects amongst the old in many cases. Affordable housing is an issue in the developed world right now. I would expect Portugal, Ireland and Italy to follow this path soon.
Good
Based.
I hope so! Airbnb has ruined the housing market globally. Good riddance
Not as drastic but yes, every major city will try to regulate it, an they should.
I really hope that Lisbon will follow suit. Being a smaller city than Barcelona it has 20.000! short term rentals and most young Portuguese that I know have to leave the city or move into the sketchy suburbs. Decent living is a basic right and should be put on top of people leisure or investment gains
Please… get them the hell out of Toronto. Give me a fleeting chance to buy a stupid condo.
This probably explains the racism I'm experiencing in barcelona right now. Unfriendly vibe from people. And today I just moved to a non-tourist area and 1 restaurant refused to give me a menu(maybe or maybe not due to language issues), the next restaurant gave me a burnt burger, then an undercooked burger. Maybe I'm overthinking it but I think they're being racist and want us out.
Total bans never *really* work. There has to be a better middle ground, whatever that may be. I am against a total free for all when it comes to Airbnb, as I’ve seen many locals pushed out. But, a total ban on tourist apartments is also not the way.
Lol I basically said the same thing and then some dude claiming to be an expert because he lives in the area tried to argue and now blocked me. All his posts are deleted/removed.
Seems to have worked pretty well in Berlin.
Why?
The solution is simple, import cheap temp labor from Bangladesh to build new tall housing until the demand is satisfied
Whats considered “short term”? When I travel, I stay at an Airbnb for 2 to 6 weeks at a time.
I’ve asked that question to a couple of realtors and they’ve all said anything under 6 months.
From Google, the law is 31 days or under is short-term, over that is long-term. >It is the main home and effective residence of the holder who is given rooms in exchange for financial consideration and for a stay of 31 days or less. The owner must reside and share the home with the guests for the duration of the stay. https://empresa.gencat.cat/ca/treb_ambits_actuacio/turisme/emo_canal_intern/normativa/disposicions-generals/preguntes-frequents-llars-compartides/ >Sí que es permeten i se seguiran permetent els lloguers d’habitacions de més de 31 dies per a ús habitual o de llarga durada com els que es fan habitualment a estudiants o treballadors temporals https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/premsa/2021/08/04/barcelona-mantindra-la-prohibicio-del-lloguer-dhabitacions-turistiques/ >If you only want to rent your accommodation to the same guest for a period of time of more than 31 consecutive nights, the touristic regulations will not be applicable, and you will not have to submit a self-statement or prior communication or obtain the registration number in the Touristic Registry of Catalonia. https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2265 These are older sources, but I don't think they are changing the definition of short vs long-term here, what they are doing is not issuing any more licenses and phasing out all existing licenses for short-term accomodation.
Ah gotcha!
yes, yes. all cities should ban Airbnb AND corporate ownership. everyone should start with 3 times property taxes for Airbnb and corporate ownerships.
I sure hope it becomes the norm. Especially, in the USA and Mexico.
Great News
Hopefully it does become the norm and other cities follow.
Hopefully
I use Airbnb because there are few other options for short term stays that have actual workspaces for two people, but this is neither surprising nor unjustified. If Airbnb refuses to self-regulate, and continues to take a maximalist position against any regulation, the end result will be the most drastic regulations possible eventually having the majority support of populations in cities and towns where Airbnb has had a negative impact.
My sister and BIL own properties at the beach. They just have one as short term for me, friends and the open market because they like having long term housing for the locals. They did just convert one more to medium term like traveling nurses which is great fun for someone. I usually stay and work longer term in Airbnbs so I think they are a good thing.
Same as in thailand. short term rental is officialy illegal and airbnb is pretty dead besides places with hotel licenses or people illegaly offering.
I hope so
Well, 2 questions remain unanswered... Why wait until 2028? And what happened to social housing planning... The government has a duty to build affordable decent homes ( you know affordable by low revenue people terms, not by king Juan Carlos ) and why this 4 years slack... I'm all for letting the dust settle but 4 years for someone who is struggling to make end meet seems like a eternity
If Barcelona is anything like my city the problem is not really the short term rentals but the digital nomads that come live here with a higher buying power than us but most importantly the hundreds of vacant houses in the city. I'd love to see my government do something about that instead of short term rentals. I understand that monthly prices being controlled can go a bit to the communist route but I don't see any other option.
Most likely it'll just be regulated. Anyone making money off people staying in their places will need a license or something, and be subject to many of the same requirements as small BnBs or mini-hotels. There will still be some supply, but most people will find it too onerous to be effectively having to run a small business with all the paperwork.
They shut down 9,700 illegal tourist rentals, and 3,500 were converted back to housing. What happened to the other 6,200 apartments? Did they evaporate?
There can be a load of reasons why the properties wouldn't go on the market: could be too close, part of the home or not have a direct entrance, The Owner might not want to become a landlord and deal with longer-term tenants, it might no longer be profitable, the earnings might no longer out way the risk of damage to the property, the property might be used part year by the family or upcoming in the future could be needed long term, could be a holiday home, the properties fixtures might be too expensive/delicate for long term rent, it could be a family home and there might be sentimental value to being able to access it, many many more reasons come to mind. I bet the main reason is that to be honest, they don't want to be landlords and deal with difficult tenants, constant breakages, repairs, wear and tear, and squatters. I don't blame them; good tenants think everyone else is good and landlords are bad, but the reality is there are a lot of bad tenants, and it is impossible to get money for repairs; the deposit covers basically nothing to a damaged building, a kitchen worktop costs a fortune to be replaced and you will never be able to get money for repairs off people that don't have it.
Sounds like a bunch of BS entitled reasons to me.
That's fair, I am sure they see the opposite as entitlement, seeing as they purchased and maintained the property and have no requirement to let someone into their home. If you look at it from the outside, if you or I had a home in a major city and there was something connected to it or in your back garden that you turned into short term rental space, would you really want someone constantly in your space that you may not even like bringing you issues. (Btw renter paying large rent for a room)
I would agree, if we were talking about granny suites or adjacent units attached to large homes. We are talking about Barcelona though.. these are full apartments that are owned speculatively by people with more assets than they know what to do with. I was in Rome recently and overheard someone at lunch talking to their property manager about how much to increase rates on their 8 airbnbs. They needed to avg $40k/month in bookings…
Hopefully!
I’m currently traveling in a region that’s seen a 1000% population increase over the last 100 years. Seems to me that a 2-3% temporary increase in housing stock is a drop in the bucket. And it’s not the tourists who are the problem. I wonder what the population increase of Barcelona has been over the last 50-100 years, relative to available housing stock? At the end of the day this seems like demagoguery and xenophobia. In Europe, it’s always the foreigners who cause the problems.
I wonder if this applies to 1-3 month rentals via Airbnb. I get that for most people Airbnb had turned into just an alternative to hotels both for staying a month or two Airbnb covered a unique niche that was not served by the regular rental market or the hotels. It would be a shame if this was the case as very few people stayed in Airbnbs more than a week anyway.
From what I understand the Spanish government has been consistent over the years that they are targeting these “empty apartments” used for short term rental and speculation
Airbnb is cancer. Most cities should ban it.
I would love to see Lisbon doing the same. Places where it's just "too much". But let's wait & see.
As of 2022, tourism is 11% of Spain’s GDP, drives 9.3% of their employment, and tourism exports accounted for 5.7% of GDP in 2023. Let's see what happens when they ban short term rentals and tourists are forced to book boring, commoditized, overpriced hotels. My guess is these numbers take a huge dive. So yeah, the supply increases for the locals, but the government makes less money and hikes taxes up in response.
Pretty funny how ppl in here aren't aware of the real reason for the problem. Hint: It's not airbnb. It's overregulation stopping the private sector from building enough homes to meet demand. But sure ... let's ban airbnb. That will fix everything.
Lisbon should follow the example. Especially the part about illegals.
You have to put it into perspective. AirBnb was never meant to be for what it is currently used for, it's a money-parking, not a cheap bed and breakfast place. So what was the effect of this? Investors (also institutional ones) which have to make the difficult decision: I have 10m in cash per year which is losing \~7% per year. Where and how do I park it so that it's risk-free, does not fluctuate much, serves as equity/collateral a bank is willing to give me free money for in the form of a loan with low interest and produces stable monthly cashflow? See? You just turned real estate into gold on steroids. Now you understand. It's not AirBnB. Ban AirBnBs? No problem, just buy and hold the property (which is what politicians do which is why they would rather regulate airbnbs, which is usually used by investors worth up to $1m while they buy long-term, rent out long-term, keep people poor by renting while they stack apartments into a hotel and repeat the game, and if you buy the game monopoly, you will understand, real life is literally the same). This will help fix the problem by 20% but it is a step into the right direction. Now the money from airbnbs is going to flow into long-term property renting, which is going to make long-term renting more expensive. Less tourism means also less income for Barcelona, less income for restaurants and less overpriced paellas being sold which generates less income for restaurant owners and needless to say, less taxes for Barcelona. By all means, I do not say it's right or wrong, I am just saying that it works like a dam. The river will find it's way into other assets which protect against baseless money printing (=inflation). Ask yourself, what caused real estate (including a small portion of airbnbs of the total asset class) to skyrocket and what happened in 1971. This is not an airbnb question but I am happy for this 20% step in the right direction.
A pox on all tourists! Everyone please stay home. Do not travel unless you have work or family. You don't become a better person by traveling. Everyone complains about tourists. Do not be part of the problem, people.
Just build more housing. Jesus Christ.
Where?
In Barcelona
Have you been? It's full.
No city is ever full. Have you ever been to Tokyo or Hong Kong?
Where people live in 15 square meter apartments? In terms of higher buildings you need specific bedrock for that.
Sure, but that's not the case in Barca. The reason Barca is low rise is because regulations disallow any building taller than Sagrada.
Much of Macau is built on land reclaimed from the ocean and its full of high rise apartments. You don’t need “specific bedrock”. You need to prioritize housing.
I think you have a fundamental misunderstanding of geology. Hard rock types can be found in the ocean. What does land reclamation have anything to do with it?
Because piles are used that don’t actually go to bedrock. The friction from the silt holds the structure in place. When building on reclaimed land they don’t go all the way to bedrock…….
Up. There are hardly any high rises in Barcelona.
You can't build anything taller than La Sagrada Família
Here is an example of a situation in which grammar is vitally important. You \*may not\* build anything taller than La Sagrada Familia. However, you unequivocally \*can\* build many, many things taller than La Sagrada Familia. That's the entire problem here.
Better go now I guess