Barcelona Mayor Reveals Plan To Ban Tourist Vacation Rentals

Barcelona welcomed the world in 1992 when it hosted the Summer Olympics. Now the city in Spain is not so sure it wants the world to visit.

At least, not so many.

Barcelona is enacting a plan to ban tourist vacation rental apartments by 2028.

That’s according to a controversial plan proposed by Barcelona Mayor Jaume Collboni in another example of a European city trying to combat over-tourism. The short-term rental market has increased by nearly 70 percent in the last ten years and the cost of buying a home has risen 40 percent, pricing out many Barcelona residents.

"We cannot permit that the majority of young people who wish to leave home also have to leave Barcelona," said Collboni. 

Spain is the second most-visited country in the world, second only to France with 85 million visitors last year. 

In recent years, the Spanish government has tried to make it more difficult for a tourist vacation rental by requiring a license to do so. Nearly 10,000 illegal vacation rentals have been shut down in the last seven years. There are still more than 10,000 licensed rentals available in the city.

There is expected to be a legal pushback as Barcelona joins the growing number of European cities in a crusade against over-tourism.

 

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