If the difficulty in accessing housing is one of the main concerns of Barcelona residents and the City Council collects a specific surcharge from the tourist tax each year - which is expected to be around 80 million in 2024 -, why not dedicate this amount to alleviate the problem? This is the proposal of the city's tourist apartment sector. They estimate that next year they will contribute 18.5 million euros to the municipal coffers through the surcharge on the tourist tax that they apply to their customers and propose that the City Council promote with this money a program inspired by the Young Rent of The Generalitat. In this way, they could channel a monthly aid of 500 euros to 3,000 families.
"The aid could be allocated to young people who cannot emancipate themselves, to mileurist couples who do not make ends meet, or to families who live in neighborhoods with more tourist pressure such as Ciutat Vella, Sant Antoni or Sagrada Família", explains Enrique Alcántara, president of the Barcelona Tourist Apartments Association (Apartur). The entity has a fleet of 6,300 active tourist homes in the city, which represents 0.77% of the total number of homes (808,751, according to Federatur data).
The tax on stays in tourist establishments (IEET) currently sets for tourist apartments an amount of 5 euros per customer per day (2.25 of the general rate applied by the Generalitat and 2.75 of the municipal surcharge, which from in April it will be 3.25 euros). Apartur's proposal is to allocate the collection of this surcharge that comes with the tourist apartments to the implementation of the rental assistance program. In other words, to distribute the 18.5 million that they expect to invoice during the coming year among 3,000 families, at the rate of an aid of 500 euros per month. According to their calculations, if the hotel sector shared the objective and joined the formula they propose, then they could benefit from a rent subsidy for up to 9,000 families in the city.
"The solution could be applied immediately if the municipal government, which has full powers, included the measure in next year's budgets, now is the time; it's not a solution to the whole problem, but it could help a lot of people significantly, it's a good measure and a way to contribute to improving things", says Alcántara. Nine years ago, in a meeting with the then mayoress Ada Colau, the sector already proposed channeling in some way the income generated by tourism towards social housing, "but they didn't want to consider it", he adds.
The City Council's forecast is to deposit around 20 million euros from the tourist tax collected by the Generalitat in Barcelona, which will be added to the 80 million from the specific municipal surcharge. This surcharge began to be applied from 2021 and progressively, since it has gone from 0.75 euros per person and night in 2021 to the current 2.75 until arriving in April 2024 at 3 .25 euros per tourist and night or per tourist arriving by cruise.
Taxation derived from tourism will next year become the third source of income for the Barcelona City Council, with a collection close to one hundred million that will be allocated to very varied objectives: from the promotion of the city to the announced air conditioning in 170 educational centers.
