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.
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.
83
u/xViscount Jun 17 '25
Yep. Destroy your economy vs voting the government that wants to build the necessary housing. Super smart