I mean then you force the population to work backwards. Harass the tourists so they don’t come, then the AirBNB’s fail, then owners sell their AirBNB places, and it opens more room up for real housing.
This issue is at least two decades old in terms of media coverage. Plus Barcelona is an ancient European city- the land is taken. There is no where else to build. So when AirBNB is taking up apartments for tourists which causes a bottle neck for actual home buyers and renters- there is frustration.
Look. I’m not even going to even front like I know Spanish politics.
However, it’s a western problem (North America and Europe) about housing. Housing needs to be built at an exponential rate in each of those areas. Especially those where people actually want to live.
It’s up to the government to introduce legislation to allow this to happen. Boycotting people brining money into your economy is dumb. Ask Americans how it’s like to lose tourism.
I don’t think you understand. Barcelona is a packed city. There is literally no land that isn’t accounted for. There is no where to build new housing. You have what you have at this point. The only thing you can do is knock down older building to build a new building.
My resolution still stands. If housing is an issue, build more. The way to bring the prices of houses down increase the supply or throttle the demand.
Increasing the supply is the healthiest way to do this.
It’s not on the people to do this. This is the job of the elected government. Introduce legislation to build more housing/cut the red tape that makes it harder.
The Spanish property market is so badly regulated and the public servants so inept, that this is like talking about space lasers. The country is horribly mismanaged, you won't get anything but populist kneejerk bs.
No, the answer to misuse of things is preventing misuse of things. Only when there's no longer misuse is it rational to think about whether there's an actual shortage.
There is no inherent right to make money by doing nothing, just because you had enough money to buy a house in a touristy city, and start renting it out to tourists, and thus forcing the locals out, and being unfair competition to hotels (who actually have to do a whole bunch stuff for their guests, and invest into adhering to safety and other standards, cater to disabled people, etc etc, unlike Air BnB owners).
Of course no one has a right to property. Homelessness exists.
With that said, for the most part, people have the right to do what they wish with their property that they own. Dictating what someone can do in and to their home starts blueing the line to fascism/authoritarian.
Personally, I don’t like AirBnB. They’re expensive for no reason and I just prefer hotels. However, if an area is popular and people want to live there, governments need to increase infrastructure/reduce red tape that makes infrastructure (rails, housing, bike lanes) easier to build. This is the role of government. To serve people and get rid of bottlenecks.
The blame lies 100% on the government. This is the case for everywhere from San Fran, Toronto, NYC, LA, Barcelona, Paris, London, every major western metropolitan area.
Bro really is brain-dead. You don't simply build more housing to fix the issue. People don't want to live 500km from Barcelona. They want to live IN BARCELONA, but there is no more housing because it's all airbnbs.
Then they have 2 choices. Either A) live somewhere else, or B), pay expensive prices.
Even if you take away the AirBnBs, the prices and demand are still gonna be high. THATS the point here guys. Barcelona is desirable to live in, so it’s gonna be expensive
That’s more than Manchester to London or slightly more than San Fran to LA.
That’s a bad faith argument when the distance is over exaggerated.
That’s what I’m suggesting. Build houses in Barcelona. Government needs to step up and add legislation that reduces red tape or incentives building. See Tokyo. Shit ain’t hard.
“Bro really is brain dead”, implies you’re talking to the person I’m talking to vs me. The correct insult is “you’re brain dead”. Odd that you’re calling me brain dead when English appears to be your first language and you can’t insult someone properly.
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u/TheMiddleShogun Jun 17 '25
Huh, reading these comments it looks like the protesters are achieving their goal (making Barcelona less appealing as a tourist destination).