Barcelona has once again placed housing at the center of all political and social debate. The City Council has decided to gradually eliminate 10,000 tourist apartment licenses before 2028. At the same time, the Ministry of Housing has dealt a blow to digital platforms: it is demanding that they remove thousands of listings that do not comply with the new state registry. Both measures are aimed at the same goal - reducing the prevalence of tourist rentals - but they reignite the crucial question: do these policies truly help solve the housing access problem?
While Barcelona has already set a date for the disappearance of tourist apartments, the Ministry has ordered the removal of tens of thousands of listings for seasonal rentals and tourist apartments. Many applied for mandatory registration, but more than 20% of the 412,000 applications across Spain were rejected for non-compliance with the law. Barcelona is among the cities with the most rejected listings. This highlights the clash between cities that tighten controls and others that are more flexible.
Iñaki Unsain, a real estate personal shopper and director of ACV Gestión Inmobiliaria, doesn't see a real impact on the residential market with these measures. “This only affects 1.3% of the housing stock in Barcelona. Even if all those apartments were to become rental properties, the effect would be minimal compared to the brutal shortage we're experiencing,” he says. For him, we need to look deeper: the problem is the lack of a stable supply and legal certainty for landlords. “They're not addressing the real bottleneck: there aren't enough homes, and owners are increasingly fearful due to legal uncertainty.”
Unsain insists: as long as the long-term rental stock doesn't grow and the regulations aren't clear and predictable, limiting tourist rentals won't lower prices or alleviate the tension. According to him, the Catalan market no longer just has a price problem, but a pure scarcity problem. “In Catalonia, the big problem is that there are no apartments for rent. It’s an extremely tight market, not only in Barcelona, but in almost the entire region.”
The expert also points out that regulatory changes and the expansion of high-demand areas have led many landlords to take their apartments off the rental market. “We’re seeing more and more owners withdrawing their apartments because they don’t feel legally protected, especially if there are payment defaults or contract issues. This has led many to prefer selling. As a result, the rental market has shrunk like never before.” The result is fewer signed contracts and soaring demand, driven by population growth, job changes, and new lifestyles.
And it’s not just a problem in Barcelona city. Municipalities in the metropolitan area and other Catalan capitals are in the same situation. “The outskirts are no longer secondary markets. They’ve absorbed the demand displaced from Barcelona and are now also under pressure, with fewer contracts and rapidly rising prices,” he explains.
To all this must be added the changes following the pandemic: increased mobility between cities, a search for more space, and the rise of remote work, which has only partially taken hold. “These changes have also put pressure on markets that previously served as an escape.”
Regarding the elimination of legal tourist apartments, Unsain points to another problem. “International experience shows that if you suddenly remove the regulated supply without strengthening inspections, the market moves into the underground economy, and that only brings more disorder and precariousness.” He also warns that the regulation of short-term rentals has made them unattractive to many owners. “Having to justify the temporary nature of the rental and the risk of having the apartment reclassified as a primary residence creates a lot of uncertainty.”
With supply falling and demand strong, Barcelona is reaching a crucial stage. The debate is no longer just about tourist apartments. Now the question is how to truly expand the housing stock and restore stability to a market that, according to experts, has never been as strained as it has been in the last ten years.
