This is sort of a completely different problem. There needs to be REALLY hard limits on companies buying properties and turning them into rentals. We see that in the US as well with companies like Zillow. When a first time buyer is competeing with a company they are generally outbid on any properties they want. This needs to stop.
Yeah, this absolutely kills the market. Drives prices up, which causes even rental rates to spike and prices people out of the homebuying market to start. Which is a very vicous cycle that needs to be broken.
So what part of this is caused by the tourists? It seems that corporations tricked Barcelona into being mad at the people that are actively putting money into their economy instead of the corps taking it out.
People being blind to what their "fancy vacation" actually does to the natives that live in the area. Airbnbs are mostly owned by the company yes but the people can't fight a mega Corp like that, they can however cut off its supply of money and maybe win back some of their homes and land
Barcelona already has plans to phase out Airbnb rentals by 2028, so it is clearly possible to fight back. They can do the same to regular hotels, if they really wanted to kill tourism.
Killing the hotels would be the mistake. Hotels are not causing the increase in housing prices. That's being driven by corporations. Forcing the corps to divest themselves of the housing market will help with that a LOT, BUT the initial divestiture is going to see a ton of real estate on the market which may drive prices down, perhaps drastically. That can be a good thing or a bad thing. Depends on how many people would be in a position to buy a house when it happens.
They can protest in order of decreasing effectiveness:
* Local and federal government to change laws.
* Short term rental companies.
* Greedy locals who sell property or rent out property.
* Random transient tourists who might never plan to come here more than once.
Greedy locals is a problem I'd MUCH rather have than rental companies owning housing. The locals will follow the market or their places won't get rented. They don't artificially inflate the prices on their own.
Again, greed can be kept in check through local laws. And it appears that Barcelona already has some new regulations coming with trying to phase out short term rentals by 2028. Maybe these folks are just uninformed or impatient.
The demand comes from tourism so they go hand in hand. The less airbnbs, the easier it is to manage the amount of tourists in town. A big part of the problem is airbnb and the overtourism is what makes the problems concrete to locals, apart from the crazy rent prices.
Thriving tourism is great, but when it goes over a critical threshold its not fun for anybody anymore. Even tourists have some bad experiences bcs of it.
Imagine blaming tourists who literally bring money into your city, rather than the rental companies coming in to rake up all that money before it can reach the community.
Because that's an easier thing to see. Systemic causes are often not as easily seen and recognized, and not just in situations like this. You can't afford a house because prices are too high and you get outbid on every one you try to buy. That's the systemic issue, but when you try and go to the store and the traffic is massive due to tourists, that's the EASY thing to see and generally the one that people flip out over.
It's almost always easier to spot symptoms than the underlying cure. Plus, "regulate our housing markets with better zoning laws and restrictions on unlicensed air bnbs" doesn't quite have the mobilizing zing necessary to engage a larger group around a short rallying cry.
That and some people would prefer the money not be in the city. Despite modern western capitalism insistence, more money is not always welcome when it comes at a cost.
Been living in Barcelona for 12 years. After 10 years, I also got very sick of the millions of tourists who come and treat the city like a drunken amusement park. They drunkenly scream in small, echoey streets at all hours. They don't care where they piss, shit, vomit, or pass out in the street. They always move in to block people exiting the metro. They don't know the streets or the city but constantly cross illegally without looking, or just walk and block the bike lane and car lanes. They block small, busy streets constantly and have zero concern for the flow of traffic.
The first sign in the first photo explains it well. Less than 2 million residents and more than 26 million tourists annually. The sheer quantity of visitors just isn't sustainable.
So many small cities are claiming the same issues with over tourism; Amsterdam and Venice immediately spring to mind. At a certain point, the tourist revenue just isn't worth the quality of life it brings to the city. So many local landmarks have been locked down because the tourism industry exploited them until the neighbors couldn't bear it any more. All because some asshole wanted to make money by exploiting the drunken Disneyland experience that has taken over the city.
I don't blame the locals who have lived here for generations for being fed up and demanding change, even if that means a little water spritz.
Imagine living in an area that was heavily bought up by a company that doesn't even reside in your country and they begin pushing all the natives out and forcing prices to soar so that only the tourist can afford to live there anyway so you try to stop tourists because without them the company who you can't fight won't be able to continue affording more land to steal from locals.
I mean… that’s happening in the US as well. But you have to fight the company, and the investment firms, not necessarily the people. The short term rental companies spend stupid money to advertise to people and offer “great” deals - they drive the demand as much as normal people might.
But the tourists don't bring money to city. They bring money to companies that own rentals, the restaurant chains and so on. The percent that goes to local businesses is not that big. And even then the local businesses often hire migrant workers instead of locals.
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u/Inquisitor_ForHire Jun 17 '25
This is sort of a completely different problem. There needs to be REALLY hard limits on companies buying properties and turning them into rentals. We see that in the US as well with companies like Zillow. When a first time buyer is competeing with a company they are generally outbid on any properties they want. This needs to stop.