Short Term Rental Platforms Stay Silent While Others Call out Unintended Consequences of Barcelona’s New Ban – PhocusWire
Barcelona’s decision to ban short term rentals has prompted a slew of chatter from industry folk – many of whom are criticizing the decision and calling out potential unintended consequences – while some of the large platforms in the sector have not commented publicly on the Spanish city’s move.
Friday Barcelona Mayor Jaume Collboni said that by November 2028 apartment rentals for tourists will cease to exist as the city takes steps to transition the existing properties to residential use only.
Barcelona currently has 10,101 properties that are licensed for tourist use – a restricted count in place since 2014. “These 10,000 tourist apartments [will] become residential apartments in November 2028,” said Collboni.
When contacted by PhocusWire, Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com and HomeToGo declined to comment on the new ban, and both Airbnb and Vrbo suggested questions be directed to the European Holiday Home Association (EHHA).
The sweeping ban comes in an effort to improve Barcelona’s housing market, Collboni wrote in a post on X. “We want to guarantee the right to live in Barcelona and deal effectively with the housing crisis we have been suffering for years.”
Some supported Collboni’s move including Spain Housing Minister Isabel Rodríguez García, who took to X to share her approval: “This is what it is about, making all the necessary efforts to guarantee access to decent and affordable housing,” Rodríguez García wrote.
Unintended consequences?
Not all see the lockdown on STRs as a cure-all to the housing woes Barcelona is currently facing.
Even some on the hotel side – which stands to benefit from a shuttering of STR properties – see the move as detrimental to the city’s future in terms of tourism. Ivar Yuste, partner at PHG Hotels and Resorts said the city is essentially “shooting itself in the foot.”
“The tourism future for Barcelona is not bright,” said Yuste. “They have in place a hotel ban that inflates the asset price of the hotels, inflates rates and is diverting demand to the apartments. If you now ban also the apartments, the whole thing will get out of control… I cannot think of any positive outcome out of this situation.
“The [hotel] supply will be absolutely insufficient to fulfill the demand. … If the city council has the [means to] enforce this ban, I doubt they do, this move will significantly hurt the main source of revenue of the city.”
Yuste predicts hotels’ average daily rates will spiral out of control and that tourists will stop coming to Barcelona. In New York City, where government leaders passed strict restrictions on STRs last fall, hotel average daily rates and occupancy have surged.
The [hotel] supply will be absolutely insufficient to fulfill the demand.
Ivar Yuste – PHG Hotels and Resorts
AirDNA chief economist and senior vice president of analytics Jamie Lane echoed Yuste’s outlook, but cautioned he’s not an expert on the hotel industry in Barcelona.
Typically, when restrictions like this one are put into place there aren’t enough hotel rooms to accommodate guests in the same way STRs could, Lane said, noting AirDNA has seen that outcome play out in New York and other major cities.
So, there won’t be a number of vacant hotel rooms to match the number of removed units – especially assuming many units are multi-room properties accommodating a number of guests at a time.
“When there’s not enough supply for the amount of demand going in, typically [that] means that prices go up,” said Lane. “And that has a way of reducing overall demand, just people that get priced out of the market … So, you should see fewer people actually traveling to Barcelona as a result of something like this.”
When there’s not enough supply for the amount of demand going in, typically [that] means that prices go up … So, you should see fewer people actually traveling to Barcelona as a result of something like this.
Jamie Lane – AirDNA
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