Barcelona warned new plan for UK tourists faces being 'scuppered'

Barcelona has been issued an urgent warning over its plans for UK tourists - with a European Union law potentially curtailing their plans. Spain's plan to ban 10,000 holiday lets in Barcelona in the next five years could be scuppered as Airbnb pushes back over a breach of EU law.

Barcelona has announced plans for a citywide ban on all short-term rentals. It said that by November 2028 it will cease issuing new licences to properties and not renew existing permits, meaning that from 2029 no homes will have permission to be rented out to tourists.

“We are confronting what we believe is Barcelona’s largest problem,” the city’s mayor, Jaume Collboni said. But the ban breaches EU law, according to a complaint filed with the European Commission by an industry group.

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“More supply of housing is needed, and the measures we’re presenting are to provide more supply so that the working middle class does not have to leave the city because they can’t afford housing,“ Colboni said. He added: “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.”

According to Cities Today, a statement, published earlier this year, from the European Holiday Home Association (EHHA) a lobby group which lists Airbnb’s head of EU policy as one of four directors, read: “Banning short-term rentals while opening the floodgates to new hotels in Barcelona will not fix housing concerns or make tourism more sustainable – it serves only to take much needed income from local families and gift-it to international hotel chains.

“Short-term rentals account for less than one percent of housing in Barcelona and provide much-needed income to local families, while making tourism more sustainable and less concentrated. The EU has already said that Barcelona’s home-sharing rules are disproportionate and will not improve housing challenges, and we hope to work with the leaders on a better way forward.”

In a new statement released on Wednesday, Viktorija Molnar, secretary general of the EHHA, said: “We are convinced that EU law has not been respected”.