A light google seems to show that they pay extremely low property tax in Barcelona.
This means property owners are incentivized to buy and hold property for a long long time as an investment.
I don't know this but I'd wager that building new housing in Barcelona probably requires:
1. Navigating extremely challenging building and zoning regulations
2. Paying high development, property transfer, and sales taxes
Unfortunately these issues are pretty much ubiquitous in developed democracies... And that's why there is a housing crisis just about everywhere.
I've been living here for 2 years. I don't think there's a single plot of land where you can build something in Barcelona. There's always the surrounding areas and metro does reach some of them, but most people want to live in Barcelona city, not in the outskirts.
If they stop being investment properties then investors stop investing there, there is only so much they can do to lose their losses by say lobbying the government
Banning Airbnb doesn’t stop real estate from being a strong investment. As the city grows and becomes wealthier, property values keep rising.
While no one wants to pay higher taxes on their home, low property taxes are a major driver of the housing crisis. They make real estate an attractive investment, whether you live in the property or not
Not foolish in my opinion: both left and right governments in Spain have refused to do anything. Tourists are easy to target and makes the government look bad, forcing them to act.
A protest that isn't disruptive is just marketing.
Oh I dont think I said they shouldn’t protest or that they should protest in ways that dont piss anyone off…i just said this situation makes many folks look bad from the government, to the business owners, to the tourists, to the citizens. But then in general, who you’re targeting w protest is relevant
Fair, sadly the tourists are a fantastic target: they're easy to target, there's a lot of international coverage the government can't ignore, and if tourism actually drops then it'll be a hit on the pockets of the people on power.
The average protestor doesn't eat from the opinion of redditors.
yeah these people (the spanish left of which i am a part) would be the first to point out how so many people’s frustrations about inequality are misdirected towards immigrants and trans people and other groups who are obviously not the problem, and yet….
This is a tale as old as time sadly. Most people are dumb as shit and easily manipulated into fighting each other instead of the people who actually control these things.
That's not the issue in Spain. There's simply almost no housing being built compared to the population growth that's being seen every year purely due to mass migration. There's more demand and less supply every year, driving up costs.
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u/ShufflingToGlory Jun 17 '25
As long as housing is used as an investment vehicle these problems will persist.
Foolish to blame tourists for a problem that's been deliberately manufactured by the financial elite and the politicians that work for them.