Costa News Spain Breaking News | English News in Spain.
BARCELONA’S Airbnb house owners are demanding compensation totalling €1billion following town council’s resolution to revoke the licences of the ten,000-plus vacationer flats that function within the metropolis.
In June, Barcelona’s mayor Jaume Collboni put town on the forefront of a nationwide backlash in opposition to mass tourism by asserting that vacationer flats shall be outlawed by November 2028 in an try to alleviate town’s housing disaster which has seen rental costs surge by over 70% in only a decade.
Protestors had argued that short-term leases, similar to vacationer flats provided by Airbnb, take up beneficial housing inventory and drive up costs, forcing many locals to depart town centre for the suburbs or close by cities.
Enrique Alcantara, the president of the Affiliation of Vacationer Flats of Barcelona (Apartur), stated the €1billion declare covers ‘losses as a result of investments made and future earnings’ for round 1,500 properties and 20 property administration corporations.
That determine may nonetheless rise as claims could be submitted till November 8, with estimates that the entire sum of compensation claims associated to the brand new laws may exceed €3billion.
Following the announcement earlier this summer time, the Olive Press spoke to a number of landlords who decried the transfer as an ill-thought-out ‘populist’ resolution which might hit the revenue streams of hard-working residents and do nothing to handle the basis explanation for the housing disaster.
Luis, basic supervisor at Aparteasy, a property firm that provides short-term leases by way of Airbnb, stated the transfer will ‘not clear up the issue of housing in Barcelona because it represents just one.1% of complete housing’.
Critcising the choice, Luis stated the revoking of licences would give rise to a ‘new black market’, pushing expenditure in direction of the ‘small wealthy fingers’ of hoteliers and vacationer operators.
He additionally expressed his fear that abolishing vacationer flats, which give as much as 40% of complete vacationer lodging within the metropolis, may trigger a ‘recession’ with a monetary hit for workers, operators, bars, eating places, taxis, sights and small enterprise house owners.
