The Barcelona City Council seems to want to get serious in the fight against tourist apartments, so much so that it has announced that, over the next five years, the city will extinguish the 10,101 housing units for tourist use (HUT) now existing in Barcelona.
This has been announced by the mayor of the city, Jaume Collboni, who explains that the idea is that, by November 2028, the figure of the tourist apartment as we know it in Barcelona will disappear, and that all these homes will be destined to the residential housing stock in order to expand it.
how does Barcelona want to eliminate tourist apartments from the city?
In order to implement the measure, the government plans to apply the Decree law of the Generalitat approved on November 7 that regulates housing for tourist use (HUT). The new regulatory framework establishes a maximum of five years for existing tourist accommodation licenses. After this time they become temporary licenses, and the city council can decide whether to renew them or not.
The City Council’s intention is not to renew these licenses, so that by November 2028, the 10,101 housing units for tourist use (HUT) currently in force in Barcelona will have expired and will become part of the residential housing stock.
The Barcelona of the future, without new tourist apartments
The City Council recalled that it has been fighting against tourist apartments for years. “The PEUAT (Pla d’allotjaments turístics) served to set a cap and fight against illegal tourist apartments,” said the first deputy mayor, Laia Bonet, who recalled that, when it was approved, Barcelona had 6,000 illegal tourist apartments which have gone to about 300 to 400 ads per month which the City Council has under control.
The intention is that the next revision of the PEUAT (which still has no date) will eliminate the category of housing for tourist use. These activities will end their useful life in November 2028,” insisted Laia Bonet.
In addition , the intention is not to promote any urban planning approach that would declare the tourist use of the dwelling compatible with that of the habitual residence. In this sense, the mayor has stated that the tourism industry is important however, the city is at its limit and the supply of tourist beds cannot grow any further.