Barcelona to fine real estate for renting ad not accepting migrants

Barcelona's local government has begun the process to fine real estate website Idealista and real estate firm The New House Barcelona for a renting ad discriminating migrants.

The offer, published in June, was "explicitly" restricted to people with Spanish nationality, according to local councilor Marc Serra.

He added that it will be the first time that a fine for such reason will be enforced in the whole of Catalonia.

"We are sure it is not the only case," he added, hoping that this dissuades others to accept discriminatory ads.

Over 333,000 people living in the Catalan capital are foreign, meaning one out of every five people.

The largest foreign population in Barcelona is Italian (36,276 people), followed by the Chinese (21,658), with Pakistanis in third place (20,643).

For the local government, discriminating someone for their place of birth when it comes to housing breaches Spain's constitution, the right to housing law and the European directive regulating prohibitions in access to services.