Barcelona City Council makes a U-turn on housing. Jaume Collboni, mayor of the Catalan capital, has presented his plan to tackle the problem of access to housing in Barcelona, with "skyrocketing and increasingly expensive rental prices".
Under the name Pla Viure, his star measure, which will have a great impact and involves recovering the 10,000 tourist flats that exist in Barcelona at the moment, is to eliminate tourist flats throughout the city. "In 2029, tourist flats, as we know them today, will be no more."
As Collboni explained, the city council's idea is to apply the decree approved by the Generalitat at the end of 2023 that regulates tourist accommodation. This decree becomes a great opportunity for the city council to be able to recover these 10,000 homes for residential use.
"The 10,000 flats for tourist use will no longer be valid in November 2028 and any intention must be subject to a licence that cannot be requested because this figure will no longer exist," explained Laia Bonet, first deputy mayor for urban planning, who also took part in the press conference. Bonet also highlighted the work carried out by the council to combat illegal tourist flats in recent months.
The regional text states that in towns or areas that present problems of access to permanent housing or that already have more than five tourist flats per 100 inhabitants, tourist activity is only compatible with residential use if expressly permitted by urban planning, as long as there is sufficient land for the usual and permanent residential use of the resident population.
The Barcelona City Council is considering not promoting any urban planning that declares the tourist use of housing to be compatible with that of a permanent and habitual residence, and thus terminating the current ones in November 2028.
"This will allow us to put 10,000 homes on the rental or property market, or simply to give them the residential use that they should never have lost. It is like manufacturing 10,000 new homes in the city in just five years," Bonet explained.
The City Council has a Special Urban Plan for Tourist Accommodation (Peuat), which regulates the implementation of all types of tourist accommodation.
Since 2016, some 10,500 sanctions and 9,700 cease and desist orders have been imposed on some 6,000 illegal flats. Between 300 and 400 listings per month have been detected and the city inspection team requires the platforms to remove them immediately.
Support from the Minister of Housing
The Minister for Housing and Urban Planning, Isabel Rodríguez, has defended the proposal by the Mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, to abolish tourist flats as of 2028: "You have my full support in this task".
In a post on the social network "X", Rodriguez congratulated the Mayor of Barcelona, who proposes to abolish tourist flats in the city as of November 2028 to use them for residential use, applying the decree law approved by the Generalitat. "This is about making every effort to guarantee access to decent and affordable housing," the Minister said.
Bank of Spain: “It is good to act on the offer”
The Bank of Spain's deputy governor, Margarita Delgado, stated that it is good to act on the supply of rental housing to put more properties on the market when asked about the Barcelona City Council's announcement to abolish tourist flats in 2028.
"Increasing the supply is fundamental to influence the housing market," she said. In this case, she specified that it would be good to act on the supply side and increase rental housing".
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