Barcelona mayor welcomes Constitutional Court ruling on tourist apartment restrictions
Ruling backs Catalan government’s decree limiting tourist rentals, providing legal support to Barcelona’s plan to free up housing
tourist apartments
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Catalan government sets five-year limit on tourist apartments licenses
Rule will affect 95,000 holiday rentals in 260 municipalities
Barcelona court rules 50% rent cut for renter of 26 tourist apartments due to Covid restrictions
Company reported 83% fall in profits, but landowner rejected repeated calls to reduce monthly payments
Tourism recovery not expected anytime soon despite lockdown ease
Business trips only bookings in Barcelona, AirBnB apartments become short-let flats, and hotels allowed to open from Monday not expected to do it
Barcelona council to house 1,000 vulnerable people in congress venue
City authority also rents 200 tourist apartments for people at risk and opens three centers for homeless
Tourist flats not just for big cities as tourists flock to tiny Guardiola de Berguedà
The northern Catalan town of fewer than 900 inhabitants is seeing similar issues as Barcelona and Girona
Ratio of Airbnb apartments in Barcelona one of Europe's highest, says study
Capital has 12 flats for every 1,000 inhabitants, more than Rome and London, finds joint Catalan-Canadian report
Barcelona agrees to raise tourist tax up to €4
Visitors could be charged more to spend the night in the city if parliament makes the necessary changes to legislation
Girona’s ‘theme park’ city center no place for local neighbors
Affordable housing activists claim locals are being pushed out of their homes, while the Girona city council says there’s no issue
Barcelona has to regulate tourism, says lobby
Increase in council tax for tourist apartments, as well as tourist surcharge, proposed by Barcelona Global
Catalan coastal town attracts Mobile World Congress attendees
70% of hotels in Sitges already booked up for MWC
Tourist apartments expect full house for Mobile World Congress
Event organizers forecast more than 108,000 attendees
Barcelona cracks down on illegal subletting for tourists and closes 256 apartments
The Catalan capital’s action plan against illegal accommodation for tourists resulted in July in the closure of 256 apartments whose activity has been considered illegal, a figure which has to be added to the 112 orders announced in the first half of 2016. Besides ordering the ceasing of their activity, the accommodation websites responsible for the flats, Airbnb and Homeaway, will have to face a 30,000 euros fine for not having the required licence. This has been possible mainly due to the task of the so-called ‘flat scouts’, a figure recently created by Barcelona’s city hall, who have found 234 illegal accommodations, while the official inspectors in charge of this only detected 22. “This is not a summer campaign but an action plan which has come to stay” warned Barcelona’s deputy mayor for Ecology, Urbanism and Mobility, Janet Sanz and emphasised that tourism in Barcelona “is not related to seasons”.