Barcelona must reduce the number of tourist apartments in the city in a "very substantial" way, especially in those areas where rents are more stressed and there is a greater saturation of visitors, such as the Ciutat Vella district. This is the commitment made yesterday by Mayor Jaume Collboni based on the decree of the Generalitat that establishes the expiration of licenses for this activity and after meeting with the Minister of Housing and Urban Agenda, Isabel Rodríguez. She praised the work that both the Barcelona City Council and the Government of the Generalitat carry out in terms of residential policies.
Collboni said he wants to have the ability to decide how many tourist apartments each area of the city can take on. “We will not make any decision without having the contrast of each district,” she stated.
The mayor and the minister agreed that public administrations must focus all their efforts on facilitating access to housing and ensuring that properties designed for this purpose are not dedicated to other uses.
Minister Rodríguez reaffirmed her commitment to collaboration with the Generalitat in terms of housing and promised to work so that the next budgets allow for the development of the agreement that provides for the construction of 3,000 affordable homes in Barcelona until 2026 from a provision of 72 millions of euros.
“If throughout Spain there were mayors like the one in Barcelona and regional administrations like the Generalitat of Catalonia, who were doing their homework, we could surely be moving forward and responding in the right direction to prevent housing from being a problem in our country,” the minister stated. Rodríguez also explained that the Ministry of Industry and Tourism, headed by the former mayor of Barcelona Jordi Hereu, is studying, within its powers, the possibility of carrying out initiatives in the field of tourism that "do not lead to a deprivation of a specific use." social housing”. In this sense, the minister announced that solutions are being considered in the field of mortgage law and taxation to serve that ultimate goal.
Collboni, for his part, expressed his gratitude to the Government of Pedro Sánchez for facing, hand in hand with the other administrations, a “substantial” issue for cities like Barcelona, where there is massive tourism that impacts housing by triggering prices.
