Barcelona has once again placed housing at the centre of political and social debate. The City Council’s decision to gradually phase out 10,000 licences for tourist accommodation (VUT) by 2028 coincides with the Ministry of Housing’s move to order digital platforms to remove thousands of listings that do not meet the requirements of the new state registry. These two measures, aimed at reducing the proportion of tourist rentals, reopen a fundamental question for the sector: to what extent can these policies ease the housing access crisis?
In parallel with the timeframe set by Barcelona City Council, the Ministry has ordered the removal of tens of thousands of listings for tourist and seasonal rentals that applied for the mandatory registration number but were rejected for failing to meet legal requirements. Of the more than 412,000 applications processed across Spain, over 20% have been rejected. Barcelona is among the municipalities with the highest number of withdrawn listings, reflecting the tension between stricter regulatory models and the more permissive stance adopted in other regions.
For Iñaki Unsain, a real estate personal shopper and CEO of ACV Gestión Inmobiliaria, the real impact of these decisions on the residential market is limited. “We’re talking about 1.3% of Barcelona’s total housing stock. Even if all of it returned to the rental market, the structural effect would be insufficient to offset the massive withdrawal of supply we’re seeing,” he says. In his view, the focus should be on there being a lack of stable supply and on landlords’ legal certainty. “They’re not addressing the real bottleneck in the residential market – the chronic lack of available supply and the growing legal uncertainty many landlords feel.”
Unsain argues that without a significant increase in long-term rental stock and a clear, predictable regulatory framework, restrictions on tourist rentals “will hardly translate into real and sustained price relief”. In his assessment, the Catalan market has entered a phase where the lack of housing outbalances prices. “In Catalonia, the main problem is no longer so much the price as the lack of available rental housing. We’re facing an extremely strained market, not only in Barcelona but across almost the entire region.”
The expert points to a growing deterrent effect on landlords after years of regulatory changes and the extension of high-demand areas. “As real estate personal shoppers, we see how many landlords are withdrawing their properties from the rental market because of legal uncertainty, especially in cases of non-payment or breach of contract. This has led to a clear shift towards sales and a historic contraction of the rental market,” he says. The result is a market with fewer signed contracts and demand that continues to rise due to demographic pressure, job mobility and new living patterns.
Moreover, the tension is no longer confined to Barcelona. Municipalities in the metropolitan area and medium-sized cities across Catalonia are experiencing similar trends. “The outskirts no longer function as secondary markets. They have absorbed part of the demand displaced from Barcelona and have become highly strained areas, with a sharp fall in the number of contracts and a rapid rise in relative prices,” he explains.
This territorial shift is compounded by post-pandemic housing trends – greater intercity mobility, a desire for more space and remote working becoming more common. “These changes have amplified the pressure on markets that previously acted as a safety valve,” he adds.
On the elimination of licensed tourist rentals, Unsain introduces another nuance. “International experience shows that when regulated supply is drastically reduced without strengthening inspection mechanisms, the market tends to shift towards the informal economy – adding further distortion and precariousness.” He also warns that tighter rules on seasonal rentals have reduced their appeal for some owners. “Needing to provide documentary proof that the rental is temporary, together with the risk of it automatically being reclassified as a primary residence, creates a high level of uncertainty.”
With supply shrinking and demand holding firm, Barcelona faces a decisive stage. The debate no longer revolves solely around properties being used as tourist rentals, but rather around how to structurally expand available housing stock and restore stability to a market that, according to professionals, is experiencing the highest levels of tension in the past decade.
