There have been new policies on short-term rentals in Barcelona that you should know more about as a traveller. The Mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, has announced his zero-tolerance stance on short-term rentals, announcing that there would be a complete ban on these properties in the city as of 2029.
The plan is to avoid renewing all existing short-term rental licenses and also to stop issuing newer ones. This will ensure that no such apartment will be allowed as of 2029. So, what are your key takeaways from this decision? Here’s rounding it up below for your benefit.
Key Tenets of Barcelona’s Rules on Short-Term Apartment Rentals
There are several key aspects revolving around short-term apartment rentals in Barcelona. Some of them include:
- The short-term rental ban has been active from April 2025.
- Permits are not being granted anymore at present and existing licenses will not be renewed by 2028.
- Spain’s Constitutional Court has upheld this decision in a key judgment in March 2025.
- Barcelona will thus phase out all its short-term rentals by 2028-29 with plans to close almost 10,000 existing licenses to tackle the shortage of housing.
- New national rules will require a national registration number (from 2025) and from April last year, homeowner association approval has also been required (a 3/5 majority vote is necessary to operate a short-term rental from 3rd April, 2025, onwards).
- Unlicensed rentals will have to pay fines up to a whopping €600,000.
- As per the Spanish Royal Decree 1312/2024, all short-term rentals should have a unique registration number and stringent enforcement across platforms.
- The authorities are already tracking compliance actively, while leveraging real-time data across platforms. They are also holding inspections to check for proper documentation and compliance with local guidelines.
The move came after increasing tensions among Barcelona residents, owing to the skyrocketing growth of short-term rentals driven by popular platforms. The authorities have highlighted the requirement for balanced urban planning along with ensuring housing affordability and thoughtfully managing tourism.
How It All Happened
The crux of the issue goes back by a decade or so. The former Mayor Ada Colau had announced the stoppage of new tourist licenses for short-term rentals in the city center back in 2014. She also issued her approval in 2017 for the Special Urban Plan for Tourist Accommodations, which helped regulate the growth of these rentals. The Catalan Government also came out with a decree in 2022 that granted the authority to regulate short-term rentals to local councils. Thereafter, the newly elected Mayor Jaume Collboni announced his plan to return tourist apartments to the long-term rental market in 2024.
Collboni also added that the plan was to ease the housing crisis in Barcelona through phasing out all estimated 10,000 short-term rentals by 2028. So, what this essentially means is that no home will be allowed to be rented as accommodation for tourists from 2029 onwards. Barcelona isn’t the first city to announce these limitations; New York saw a major crackdown last year, while Lisbon, Florence, and Athens have also recently implemented bans on new short-term rental licenses in super-busy districts. However, the move has spurred a shift among platforms towards mid-term or long-term rentals to comply with the STR rules (defined as a minimum stay of 30 days). This switch offers ample potential to tap into huge demand from business travellers, students, relocators, remote workers, and digital nomads as well.
What Should You Know as a Traveller?
Before booking short-term rentals in Barcelona, here’s a round-up of the key things that you should know about:
- Make sure that any short-term rental you book has the unique registration number given in the listing. This will help you avoid possible closure/cancellation during the stay.
- The city is also initiating a crackdown on unlawful rentals. This may lead to a reduction in the number of available apartments for short-term stays, spurring a hike in prices for lawful properties.
- Ask your platform about the rental owner having at least 60% approval from the neighbours.
- You can also look to long-term or mid-term apartments with better rates in most cases for extended stays. Other options like hostels, hotels, and legal licensed apartments are also available.
- Be aware that hosts now have to gather more extensive personal data from their guests in order to prevent any potential illegal activities.
So, before you book your Barcelona apartment, keep these aspects in mind and verify everything with your platform before going ahead. Here’s wishing you a memorable trip ahead!
