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Airbnb’s strict ban in BARCELONA leaves residents renting out a single room just to be able survive, in a precarious situation.
Dozens of ordinary people living in the Catalan capital – Spain’s most expensive city to rent – claim they are being treated the same as commercial landlords for sharing their primary homes with students or short-term tenants.
Anyone renting a hotel room for less that 31 days will be considered to run a tourism business. They must obtain an authorisation by the council.
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Residents say that the problem is that there’s no such authorization for people who share their homes.
Airbnb has begun removing hundreds of listings at the request of Barcelona City Council, giving residents just ten days to delete ads or face penalties — even though no legal permit system exists for them to comply with.
It means that locals who depend on small, short-term rentals to pay their rent or mortgage are trapped in an impossible situation – forbidden to operate yet given no means to comply with the law.
Among the affected are single parents, pensioners and workers with low incomes.
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Earlier this year, La Vanguardia reported the case of María Teresa, an 80-year-old widow who receives an €840 pension but pays €1,200 in rent.
To get by, she rents her two rooms out to students. She explained that she could not stay in her home without the income.
Her story has become a symbol of what residents’ group Veïns i Amfitrions de Barcelona (ViA) calls the ‘criminalisation of survival’.
“In ViA, we are all María Teresa,” the association said in a statement. “We’re not speculators or investors. We are neighbours who share our homes in order to afford to stay in our city.”
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The group also filed formal complaints against Spain’s new Real Decreto On short-term rental, which would create an electronic national registry for hosts.
ViA has filed a legal complaint accusing the Spanish government of violating Spain’s Constitution, by placing disproportionate restrictions on property rights and privacy.
It also points to European Commission guidance stating that occasional ‘home-sharing’ should not be treated as a professional rental business.
ViA says the council created the legal limbo itself by refusing to pass a regulation regulating shared homes for years while continuing to fine residents who lack a licence which doesn’t exist.
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Barcelona is now one of few European cities in which residents cannot legally rent a bedroom at their main residence.
City Hall says its crackdown will protect housing stock and fight tourism-driven inflation. But critics claim it is driving residents out of neighbourhoods they are supposed to defend.
ViA said: “If Barcelona really wants to protect their citizens, they must allow them to remain in their own homes.”
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