Barcelona wants to ban tourists from renting holiday apartments from 2028.

Spain’s most popular holiday destination made this unexpectedly drastic announcement on Friday in an effort to curb rising housing costs and make the city livable for residents.

The city’s mayor, Jaume Collboni, said that by November 2028, Barcelona will revoke the licenses for the 10,101 apartments currently approved for short-term rental.

“We are facing what we believe is Barcelona’s biggest problem,” Collboni said at a city council event.

The boom in short-term rentals in Barcelona, ​​Spain’s most visited city by foreign tourists, is leaving some residents unable to afford housing after rents rose 68 percent and the cost of buying a home rose 38 percent over the past decade, Collboni said. Access to housing has become a driver of inequality, especially for young people, he added.

National governments are enjoying the economic benefits of tourism – Spain is one of the three most visited countries in the world – but as locals in some places can no longer afford to relocate, gentrification and the preference of property owners for lucrative rental properties for tourists is becoming an increasingly hot topic across Europe.

Over the past decade, local governments in places like Spain’s Canary Islands, Lisbon and Berlin have announced restrictions on short-term rentals.

Spain’s Socialist Housing Minister Isabel Rodriguez said she supported Barcelona’s decision.

“It’s about making every effort necessary to ensure access to affordable housing,” she posted on X.

Vacation rental platform Airbnb, which hosts a significant number of properties in Barcelona, ​​did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Collboni is making a mistake that will lead to (higher) poverty and unemployment,” Barcelona’s tourist housing association APARTUR said in a statement, adding that the ban would trigger a rise in illegal tourist housing.

Hotels are likely to benefit from the move. The opening of new hotels in the city’s most popular areas was banned by a radical left-wing party that governed Barcelona between 2015 and 2023, but Collboni has hinted that he may relax the restriction.

The Barcelona Hotel Association declined to comment on Friday’s announcement.

“These 10,000 apartments will be used by the city’s residents themselves or offered for rent or sale,” said Collboni about the measure.

The Barcelona city council said in a statement that it would maintain its “strict” inspection system to detect potential illegal tourist accommodation even after the ban comes into force.

In recent years, no new vacation rentals have been allowed in the city. The local government has ordered the closure of 9,700 illegal vacation rentals since 2016 and nearly 3,500 apartments have been reclaimed to be used as primary housing for local residents, it said.