Latest news with #Comuns
Local Spain
10-04-2025
- Business
- Local Spain
Barcelona to limit temporary rent prices so landlords stop skirting rules
The Catalan regional government has passed long-awaited rules to better regulate temporary rental contracts (contratos de temporada) and room rentals in the northeastern region. The legislation aims to control seasonal rental contracts and will limit the conditions, such as price caps, under which they can be rented for tourist or recreational use, a common method used by landlords to get around rules and bypass price caps. This comes at a time of crisis in the rental market in Catalonia and the country more widely. Nine out of ten tenants in Barcelona now have temporary rental contracts, according to a December 2024 study published by the Barcelona Urban Research Institute (IDRA). T hree quarters of rental ads in Barcelona are for rooms, which are also usually done via seasonal or temporary contratos de temporada. The reason why temporary or seasonal rental contracts under a year in length have become so common in Barcelona and around Spain is that landlords don't have to abide by price controls as they're not deemed long-term residential contracts. Barcelona and Catalonia already have price controls for 'stressed rental areas' which mean that long-term rentals, including new ones, cannot be above a certain price, and on a national level there's a rent cap on existing long-term contracts that prevent year-on-year increases of more than around 3 percent, also in place in Catalonia. Therefore, if a landlord rents out a property to a tenant for between 32 days (anything under is considered short-term rental) and 364 days (anything over is deemed a long-term contract) they don't have to abide by the Urban Leasing Law (LAU) as they're considered to be temporary rentals. Facing this, a deal was struck between the ruling Catalan Socialists and smaller parties ERC, Comuns and CUP to rubber stamp a decree-law on housing in the regional Parlament and move forward with processing it as a bill. The main change is limits on the type of rentals used for seasonal contracts. They can be recreational, for which there is no price cap, or residential, for which there are. Contracts must meet certain requirements for offering a seasonal rental for recreational use as they are more financially lucrative. However, the idea behind the new rules is that new contracts must be mainly residential. Therefore, seasonal contracts for residential use will be subject to the price ceiling set by the Housing Law for conventional rental contracts, a move intended to discourage the method used by many owners to circumvent the rules. 'In the case of seasonal rentals, the new contracts must prove their use and purpose, and the residence of the person renting them,' said Susanna Segovia of Comuns. Thus, only if a person can prove that they have a fixed home can landlords offer seasonal rentals for recreational use. 'This is a very good agreement, a maximum agreement,' Segovia added. The agreement also extends protections on housing that was due to expire with the declaration of further 'stressed rental areas', and the regional government will start a register of large property owners. There was already an inventory of companies and investment funds with multiple properties, but the agreement allows for the inclusion of individuals on the database in order to more easily apply property transfer taxes. Around a month ago, the Socialists and Comuns agreed to increase the tax from 10 percent to 20 percent for large property owners. Students who move to another city during the academic year will be able to obtain seasonal rentals for residential use, for which the price will be subject to limitations. The new regulation also limits room rentals: the sum of all rents may not exceed the ceiling established by state law.
The Independent
28-02-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Catalonia to double tourist tax in blow to holidaymakers
Visitors to Catalonia could face a tourist tax of up to €15 (£12.30) per night following new legislation signed by the government. The Spanish territory, which is home to Barcelona and the coastal region of Tarragona, is set to double the existing levy in a bid to tackle surging tourist numbers. Barcelona is expected to bear the brunt of the tax, with tourists facing a maximum of €15 (£12.40) per night, while the rest of Catalonia will only be permitted to increase the levy if they introduce a surcharge that previously only applied in the Catalan capital. At least 25 per cent of funds gathered from the tax will be allocated to housing policies. Barcelona currently charges guests in four-star hotels €5.70 (£4.70) per night, while those staying in five-star hotels are required to pay €7.50 (£6.10) Comuns parliamentary spokesperson, David Cid, said doubling the tourist tax was a proportionate and fair measure. 'A person who comes to Catalonia paying €400 or €500 for a night in a hotel can pay €7 more,' he told Spanish radio network Cadena Ser. 'We have a record number of tourists, and the new figures we are talking about for the tax do not impose any limits' [on tourism or the arrival of visitors].' He argued that similar measures 'are being proposed across Europe.' 'This is the trend at the European level,' he added. Overcrowding, strained resources like water and the increasing scarcity and cost of housing have become pressing issues across the country, especially in major cities. A 2024 YouGov study found that nearly a third of people living in Spain said there are too many foreign travellers in their country. Action against overtourism in Spain peaked in July 2024 when thousands of Barcelona residents squirted diners in tourist areas with water during a protest against mass tourism. Protesters chanted 'tourists go home' and carried placards reading 'Enough! Let's put limits on tourism'. And in November, thousands of Barcelona residents protested to demand lower housing rental conditions following growing concern about landlords switching to more lucrative, short-term rentals, and the gentrification of rent increases due to gentrification.
Local Spain
27-02-2025
- Business
- Local Spain
EXPLAINED: How and why Barcelona is doubling its tourist taxes
Holidaymakers in Spain's northeastern region of Catalonia will soon have to pay double as much in tourist taxes as they already do, with higher nightly rates in particular for those staying in Barcelona. That's according to an agreement between the Catalan government and the parliamentary group Comuns, as announced on Thursday by the latter's spokesperson David Cid on Cadena Ser radio station. The possibility of doubling the rate will mean that holidaymakers staying at 5-star and luxury hotels in the Catalan capital will pay a tourist tax of at least €7 per night rather than €3.50, while those in 4-star hotels will soon have to spend an additional €3.40. Guests staying at tourist accommodation such as Airbnbs in Barcelona will be charged €4.50 as part of the new levy. Passengers on board cruise ships docked at Barcelona's port for more than 24 hours will soon pay a tax of €6; and those on cruises that stay for more than 24 hours can expect tourists taxes of €4 per night. Those staying at other accommodation, be it hostels or guesthouses or similar, will see the daily tourist tax go from €1 to €2. It's worth noting that Barcelona city already applies its own municipal surcharge of €4 per night, and that the City Council will also have the right to double this tourist tax up to €8 per night. So if you add the regional and city tourist taxes together, each guest at a 5-star or luxury hotel in Barcelona could pay an additional €15 per night. If this went ahead, it would in effect mean that Barcelona would almost quadruple its tourist tax in some cases. Outside Barcelona, the doubled tourist tax will be slightly lower. Five-star and luxury hotels will charge €6 in tourist taxes per night, 4-star hotels €2.40, tourist accommodation owners €2, and other establishments €1.20. The cruise ship tourist taxes will be the same across the whole of Catalonia, at the same rates as Barcelona. However, all municipalities across Catalonia have now also been given the go-ahead to charge their own municipal tourist taxes, whereas up to now it was just Barcelona. Therefore, the tourist taxes could be even higher everywhere across the northeastern region, from Tarragona to Sitges. Why the tourist tax increase? Cid has argued that the tax levy hike does not represent "any limit" to tourism in the context of Catalonia's record numbers of visitors, and that the measure is in line with those of other European cities such as Amsterdam or Rome. It's expected that 25 percent of the revenue generated by the new tourist taxes will be allocated to housing access policies. "I think that many Catalans are having a very hard time," Cid argued. "And I think that the tourists who visit us can make a little more effort so that we have more resources, for example, to allocate them to what is today the main problem of the country - access to housing." The agreement is set to be ratified on Thursday February 27th by Catalonia's regional minister for Economy and Finance Alícia Romero and the leader of Comuns in the Catalan Parliament, Jéssica Albiach. As could be expected, those with business interests in the region's tourism industry are not happy with the news. Catalonia's Confederation of Hotel and Restaurant Businesses (Confecat) has issued a statement expressing its opposition to the new tourist tax, referring to it as 'continued fiscal suffocation' and that the sector "is not willing to continue being the constant source of financing for the administrations". They claim "this measure threatens to destroy the competitiveness of a business network that is key to economic and social development" of the region which in 2024 received 19.9 million international tourists. For its part, the Barcelona Hotel Association has argued that "if this measure is applied, Barcelona would become the European city with the highest tourist tax in all hotel categories, above cities such as Paris and Rome (whose average hotel prices are higher than those of Barcelona)". In anticipation of a backlash from the hotel and hospitality sector, Cid stressed that this is 'a tax that is not paid by hoteliers, but by tourists', and increasing it now makes perfect sense since Catalonia is recording 'record numbers of tourists and revenue'. "A person who comes to the city of Barcelona and pays between €300 and €400 for a night in a hotel can easily pay €7 more per night," Cid argued. Overtourism has been a problem in Barcelona for over a decade, whereas in other holiday hotspots in Spain the knock-on effects of mass tourism have started to be felt more recently. Several protests took place in the Catalan capital in 2024, most headline-grabbing of all one where holidaymakers on Barcelona's Las Ramblas boulevard had water splattered on them by a small group of demonstrators wielding water pistols. Just like in many other popular cities in Spain, the impact of tourism, international popularity and gentrification on Barcelona's housing and rental market have been notable.
