Barcelona, one of Spain's cities "drowning" with tourism, has announced that it will ban the rental of Airbnb apartments by 2028.
An unexpectedly drastic move aimed at curbing huge housing costs and making the city livable for residents.
The city's mayor, outgoing Leftist Jaume Collboni, said that by November 2028, Barcelona will remove Airbnb licenses for 10,101 short-term rental apartments.
"We are dealing with what we believe is Barcelona's biggest problem," Collboni told the city council.
A boom in short-term rentals in Barcelona, Spain's most visited city by foreign tourists, has created suffocating financial conditions for city residents as rents have risen by 68% in the past 10 years and the cost of buying a home has risen by 38 %.
Access to housing has become a driver of inequality, particularly for young people, the mayor added.
Governments are enjoying the economic benefits of tourism - Spain ranks among the top three most visited countries in the world - but for local residents, things are tough.
Many municipalities in Europe have announced restrictions on short-term rentals in the last decade, such as in Spain's Canary Islands, Lisbon and Berlin.
Of course, Barcelona's hotels are expected to benefit from this decision. However, the opening of new hotels in the city's most popular areas was banned from 2015 until 2023, with Collboni keen to relax the restriction.
The Catalan government has ordered the closure of 9,700 illegal tourist apartments since 2016, while nearly 3,500 apartments have been reclaimed to be used as a primary residence for local residents.
Spain's Socialist Housing Minister, Isabel Rodriguez, said she supported Barcelona's decision.
