It’s not just a Spanish problem. Cities across the world are struggling with how to cope with overtourism and a boom in short-term rental platforms, like Airbnb, but perhaps nowhere has surging discontent been so evident as in Barcelona, where protesters plan to take to the streets on Sunday.
Similar demonstrations are slated in several other Spanish cities, including on the Balearic islands of Mallorca and Ibiza, as well as in the Italian postcard city of Venice, Portugal’s capital Lisbon and other cities across southern Europe — marking the first time a protest against tourism has been coordinated across the region.
Spaniards have staged several large protests in Barcelona, Madrid and other cities in recent years to demand lower rents. When thousands marched through the streets of Spain’s capital in April, some held homemade signs saying “Get Airbnb out of our neighborhoods.”
Just ban Airbnb outright? Or have anyone on it to have to register as an actual B&B and be regulated as such?
I think Singapore handles it well, any residential property can only be rented for minimum of six months, less than six months and it must be registered a commercial property and be in a zone that allows commercial activity.
It doesn’t ban AirBnB specifically, but it solves this problem.
IIRC, Netherlands tried to limit long term airbnb in multiple cities, but the data has shown that long term rental prices still increase over time. Some cities’ airbnb regulation has actually raised rent prices due to the further limited supply.
More housing needs to be built. Granted, I haven’t looked into if there are any limits on corporate ownership of housing, regulations that make contruction more expensive, or what the percentage of communal housing cooperatives/rent-to-buy is, which could also make a difference compared to other countries.