05/21/2026
Hotels for tourists, homes for the residents. What do you think about this?
Barcelona is shutting down every Airbnb-style apartment in the city. All of them. By November 2028.
Mayor Jaume Collboni announced the plan in June 2024: the city would stop issuing new licenses for tourist apartments and would not renew any of the 10,101 existing ones when they expire. Property owners fought it in court. In March 2025, Spain's Constitutional Court dismissed their appeals and gave Barcelona full legal authority to proceed. The ban is now locked in.
The reason is housing. Over the past decade, rents in Barcelona rose 68% and home prices climbed 38%. Residents -- especially young people -- have been squeezed out of neighborhoods where short-term rentals took over entire buildings. The city decided enough was enough.
What changes for visitors? After 2028, you won't be able to rent an entire apartment for a short stay in Barcelona. Hotels, hostels, and licensed guesthouses will still operate. But the era of booking a flat in the Eixample or the Gothic Quarter through Airbnb will be over.
Barcelona is the first major European city to go this far. Other cities like London and Paris cap how many nights a property can be rented each year. Barcelona is ending the whole thing.
