Depending on how you look at it, the story of Airbnb is either that of an online service thriving after serving an underserved niche, or that of a technological oversupply causing serious damage to the urban landscape. On the one hand, there are many cases of Airbnb providing travelers with a pleasant living space that also benefits local residents. On the other hand, several studies have pointed out the detrimental impact of short-term rentals on several cities’ real estate options for the people who actually live there.

That’s why more and more cities have announced plans to regulate short-term rentals – or eliminate them altogether. There are international efforts to do so. Barcelona is the latest city to take a big step toward eliminating short-term rentals entirely. As Business Insider’s Eliza Relman and Dan Latu report, the city has set an ambitious goal of eliminating short-term rentals there by 2028.

Business Insider cites a study published four years ago in Journal of Urban Economics which examined the impact of short-term rentals on the city’s larger real estate market. The study’s authors wrote at the time that “in an average neighborhood, Airbnb activity increased rents by 1.9%, transaction prices by 4.6%, and asking prices by 3.7%.” In the neighborhoods most affected by Airbnb, the study found that rents increased by as much as 7%.

The existence of Airbnb, Vrbo and similar services makes it easy for people to rent out spare rooms or earn extra money while traveling. Unfortunately, in some sought-after locations, this also leads some property owners to limit themselves to short-term rentals only, leading to a shortage of existing housing supply.

As Business Insider Barcelona’s move to eliminate short-term rentals by the end of 2028 reportedly follows a partial ban already imposed in 2021 – and is in line with measures already taken by some other European cities and tourist destinations.

However, a ban on short-term rentals does not mean the end of short-term rentals in practice. Earlier this year The GuardianZoe Rosenberg of the New York Times has looked at the impact of New York City’s ban on short-term rentals. “For many tourists, there is still no good answer to the so-called Airbnb ban,” Rosenberg wrote, citing the city’s high hotel prices. One side effect of the ban has been a rise in Airbnb listings across the river in New Jersey — suggesting that communities near Barcelona could see a similar surge in the coming years.