(Credit: Shutterstock / MPauline)
Starting in 2029, Airbnb rentals will no longer be an option for Barcelona tourists.
The city plans to ban short-term rentals starting in 2029, citing Barcelona's housing crisis and its high rent prices, Bloomberg reports.
At a press conference on Friday, Barcelona Mayor Jaume Collboni said the city will not renew licenses for short-term rentals or provide licenses for new properties. The move means short-term rentals will effectively be phased out in the next five years.
“This measure will not change the situation from one day to the next. These problems take time. But with this measure, we are marking a turning point,” Collboni said.
Like many major cities, short-term rentals in Barcelona have diminished the number of available homes, leading to higher rent prices and forcing many middle-class families to move. Rent prices in Barcelona have reportedly increased 14% over the past year.
Bloomberg notes that while Barcelona isn’t the only city to oppose short-term rentals, its response is perhaps the most aggressive. Tokyo and New York require hosts to live in the apartments that they rent out, and other cities have placed limits on the number of nights someone can stay in a short-term rental or how many properties a host can potentially list.