Spain Orders Airbnb to Take Down 66,000 Rental Listings
The Spanish government on Monday ordered Airbnb to remove nearly 66,000 listings from its platform, widening a crackdown on tourist rentals as it seeks to alleviate a housing crisis that has become among the worst in Europe.
The government said the listings were in violation of rules because they either lacked licenses, had fake license numbers or failed to reveal whether the property was run by a corporation or an individual.
Airbnb said in a statement that it would continue to appeal all decisions linked to the case. A spokesman said the company would keep the listings up until the appeal made its way through the courts.
Housing affordability has become a critical social and political issue in Spain, where mass demonstrations have been held across the country by people who say that the proliferation of real estate investors and the conversion of lodging into tourist accommodations have pushed families from their homes. The scarcity has helped drive up prices much faster than wages, putting affordable housing out of reach for many.
Spain's consumer affairs minister, Pablo Bustinduy, said the action was part of a broader push by national, regional and local authorities 'to ensure that no economic interest takes precedence over the right to housing.'
His agency had previously investigated Airbnb and notified the company several months ago that 65,935 listings did not meet legal requirements and would need to be taken down, but the company appealed in court. On Monday, Madrid's high court backed the order. The government will require Airbnb to remove a first batch of 5,800 ads on the site, and additional orders will be issued until all the illegal listings are removed, Mr. Bustinduy said.
The company said that the root cause of the affordable housing crisis in Spain was a lack of housing supply and that stricter restrictions in cities including Amsterdam, Barcelona, Edinburgh and New York 'failed to ease local housing challenges while hurting local families who rely on hosting and driving up the price of accommodations for everyday travelers.'
'The solution is to build more homes — anything else is a distraction,' the company said in the statement.
Airbnb's listings in Madrid and Catalonia, whose capital is Barcelona, are among those affected by the ruling on Monday.
Barcelona had announced it would become the first European city to end licenses for vacation rentals, requiring owners to offer them as long-term lodging at capped rents by 2028 or put them up for sale. Mayor Jaume Collboni told The New York Times recently that tackling rising inequality that stemmed from the lack of affordable housing was the top priority.
Spain's woes mirror the pain lashing other European cities: Residential real estate has increasingly been turned into financial assets by investors. A surge in global tourism and workers crossing borders has prompted landlords to favor short-term rentals over protected long-term tenants. Cities need more homes, but high costs and complex regulations have stifled construction. A once-vaunted stock of social housing across Europe to shelter struggling families has shrunk after governments sold them to raise cash.
In Spain, the government has sought to reverse the problem with an ambitious program to build more affordable lodging and social housing. The prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, has sought to curb foreign buyers, including by proposing a 100 percent tax aimed at foreign real estate investors.
And in December, Spain's Supreme Court ruled that homeowners' associations could prohibit tourist rentals in their building if they got a three-fifths majority to agree.
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