Latest news with #ElisendaAlamany
Daily Mirror
4 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mirror
Barcelona 'hostile city' for visitors as tourist tax doubles to 15 Euros a night
Barcelona has voted to double the tourist tax to €8 by 2029, and the surcharge, added to the Catalan tourist tax, means some tourists will have to pay up to €15 a night Tourists visiting Barcelona are facing paying up to €15 (£13) a night for overnight stays in a shock new move. The Spanish city has voted to double the controversial tourist tax to €8 (£7) by 2029. The decision was taken yesterday by Barcelona council, with officials agreeing: "The more tourists pay, the less residents will have to." The tourist tax will rise by €1 (£0.87) each year from now on until it reaches the historic high of €8 in 2029. The measure approved will see the surcharge rise to €5 (£4.3) in 2026, €6 (£5.2) in 2027, €7 (£6.1) in 2028, and finally €8 in 2029 - double Barcelona city's current tourist tax surcharge of €4 (£3.50). The surcharge is in addition to the Catalan tourist tax, which varies according to the type of accommodation and stay. The Catalan tourist tax is expected to increase later this year, up to €7 per night for five-star hotels, meaning some tourists could face a total charge of €15 in 2029. "The more tourists pay, the less residents will have to," said Esquerra Republicana (ERC) leader Elisenda Alamany after Friday's council session. Her party proposed the surcharge increase, and the measure passed with support from the ruling Socialists, and Barcelona en Comú. Junts abstained while the People's Party (PP) and Vox voted against. "Managing tourism is common sense in this city," she said ahead of the vote, stressing that the debate wasn't about being for or against tourism, but about shifting perspective: "Recovering that income allows us to ensure balance and build a successful city." Speaking to reporters after the vote, she welcomed the "solid majority" backing the measure, saying the aim was for tourists to contribute more. Deputy Mayor for Economy and Tourism, Jordi Valls, expressed the city government's support for the measure, noting that the tourist surcharge already helps fund key areas such as public transport, safety, and climate initiatives. He said they welcomed the phased approach in ERC's proposal, allowing the sector to adapt gradually as the tax increases. "The city recognises that tourism is a key part of our economy, but there is consensus that it must be properly managed, and that includes the sector itself," he said. The political parties PP and Vox have rejected the increase in the amount of the surcharge and claim tourism is "criminalised". The PP says it will turn Barcelona "into a city hostile to visitors". The measure is conditional on the Parliament approving, foreseeably in October, a modification of the current limit of this rate. Only with that approval, the city council will be able to include the new calendar of increases in the tax ordinances that must be approved before the end of the year. Elisenda Alamany said: "Governing tourism is no longer to be on the right or the left, it is common sense. If we do not govern tourism, the city changes and will change and it will be even more difficult to continue living."
Local Spain
04-03-2025
- Business
- Local Spain
Catalonia vows to limit temporary rents so 'smart arse landlords stop cheating'
The Catalan government and left-wing regional party ERC are in the process of negotiating an agreement which will regulate temporary rental contracts and rental by rooms in the northeastern region. Nine out of ten tenants in Barcelona now have temporary rental contracts, according to a December 2024 study titled 'Renting: insecurity guaranteed by law', published by the Barcelona Urban Research Institute (IDRA). Furthermore, three quarters of rental ads in Barcelona are for rooms, which usually also fall under the category of contrato de temporada. The reason why temporary rental contracts under one year in length have become so common in Barcelona and other parts of Spain is that landlords don't have to abide by the recent price controls implemented in both Catalonia and other parts of the country, as they're not deemed long-term contracts. Barcelona and Catalonia have price controls for 'stressed rental areas' which mean that long-term rentals (even 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, legislation 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) and above rules, as they're considered to be temporary rentals. Furthermore, these rental contracts don't have to be five years long by law and can thus kick out tenants sooner, the landlords can set the price they want and increase it as they see fit, and estate agencies also exploit the lack of rights of temporary tenants to ask them for fees that long-term tenants cannot be charged. More often than not these seasonal or temporary contracts are advertised on portals such as Idealista as being 11 months long. What Catalonia's ruling Socialists and the ERC are now looking to do is make sure that any rental contract that is not specifically of a temporary nature due to work, study, medical or any other justified reason must be automatically a long-term rent. In the words of Elisenda Alamany, secretary general of ERC, this will prevent 'some smart arse people from cheating', breaking the price limit rule and 'speculating with housing'. The measure would also apply to 'fake temporary contracts' by rooms that 'trick' the system, as tenants usually stay for more than a year, but are at the mercy of price increases that temporary contracts often come with. Last year, Spain's left-wing national government had planned to tighten its grip on temporary accommodation rentals as a potential means of making more long-term rentals available, but the country's right-wing parties rejected the proposal in parliament in September. There's been no sign of any progress on this front since then - only forcing landlords to list their temporary and room rentals on a government register - which has spurred Catalan regional president Salvador Illa to listen to the request of taking the matter of temporary accommodation into the Generalitat's own hands. 'Rent prices in Catalonia as a whole are extortionate,' Alamany stated. 'That means that a big proportion of Catalans have to spend a large part of their salary to pay for them.' In the last five years, seasonal or temporary rents in Barcelona has multiplied by six, and in Catalonia the average monthly rent has gone from €584 to €1,136 (90 percent more). 'That's why we must avoid this mockery,' the ERC politician concluded.
