Latest news with #crisisHabitacional
The Independent
20-06-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Judge rejects Airbnb's appeal in move that could change Spanish tourism forever
A Spanish court has upheld an order for Airbnb to block nearly 66,000 rental listings across the country, rejecting an appeal from the online platform. The ruling reinforces the government's stance that these short-term rentals violate local regulations and contribute to Spain 's escalating housing crisis, particularly as the nation experiences record tourist numbers. The Consumer Rights Ministry had previously flagged the listings for violations, issuing an order last month for Airbnb to remove 65,935 properties. Of these, 5,800 were identified for immediate takedown. An Airbnb spokesperson could not be immediately reached for comment on the Madrid 's High Court 's decision. The ministry has said the listings it flagged did not include their license number or specify whether the owner was an individual or a company. It said others listed numbers that didn't match what authorities had. Last month, Consumer Rights Minister Pablo Bustinduy told The Associated Press that the tourism sector could not "jeopardise the constitutional rights of the Spanish people.' This included their right to housing and well-being. Carlos Cuerpo, the economy minister, said in a separate interview that the government had to tackle the unwanted side effects of mass tourism. It comes following protests across Spain and popular European hotspots. Earlier this month, protesters used water guns against unsuspecting tourists in Barcelona and on the Spanish island of Mallorca as demonstrators marched to demand a rethink of an economic model they believe is fuelling a housing crunch and erasing the character of their hometowns. The marches were part of the first coordinated effort by activists concerned with the ills of overtourism across southern Europe's top destinations. While several thousands rallied in Mallorca in the biggest gathering of the day, hundreds more gathered in other Spanish cities, as well as in Venice, Italy, and Portugal's capital, Lisbon. 'The squirt guns are to bother the tourists a bit,' Andreu Martínez said in Barcelona with a chuckle after spritzing a couple seated at an outdoor café. 'Barcelona has been handed to the tourists. This is a fight to give Barcelona back to its residents.' Martínez, a 42-year-old administrative assistant, is one of a growing number of residents who are convinced that tourism has gone too far in the city of 1.7 million people. Barcelona hosted 15.5 million visitors last year eager to see Antoni Gaudí's La Sagrada Familia basilica and the Las Ramblas promenade. Martínez says his rent has risen over 30 per cent as more apartments in his neighborhood are rented to tourists for short-term stays. He said there is a knock-on effect of traditional stores being replaced by businesses catering to tourists, like souvenir shops, burger joints and 'bubble tea' spots. 'Our lives, as lifelong residents of Barcelona, are coming to an end," he said. "We are being pushed out systematically.'
Arab News
10-06-2025
- Business
- Arab News
Spain's economy minister says ‘overtourism' challenges need to be addressed
MADRID: Spain could receive as many as 100 million tourists this year, according to some projections, which the country's economy minister said poses challenges for the country's residents that the government can no longer afford to ignore. Last year, Spain received a record 94 million international visitors, making it one of the most visited countries in the world. 'It's important to understand that these record numbers in terms of tourism also pose challenges,' Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo said in an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press. 'And we need to deal with those challenges also for our own population.' Tourism is a key sector for the Southern European nation's economy, which grew faster than any major advanced economy last year at 3.2 percent, and is projected to grow at 2.4 percent this year, according to the Bank of Spain, well ahead of the expected eurozone average of 0.9 percent. But a stubborn housing crisis in which home and rental costs have skyrocketed in cities such as Madrid, Barcelona and elsewhere has led to growing frustration about one aspect tied to tourism in particular: the proliferation of short-term rental apartments in city centers. The country has seen several large protests that have drawn tens of thousands of people to demand more government action on housing. Signs at demonstrations with slogans such as 'Get Airbnb out of our neighborhoods' point to the growing anger. In response, the government recently announced it was cracking down on Airbnb listings that it said were operating in the country illegally, a decision that the company is appealing. 'We are a 49 million-inhabitants country,' Cuerpo said. The record numbers of tourists illustrate the 'attractiveness of our country, but also of the challenge that we have in terms of dealing and providing for a good experience for tourists, but at the same time avoiding overcharging our own services and our own housing,' he said. The Bank of Spain recently said the country has a deficit of 450,000 homes. Building more public housing is critical to solve the problem, Cuerpo said. Spain has a lower stock of public housing than many other major European Union countries. 'This is the key challenge for this term,' the minister said of the country's housing woes. On the possibility of more US tariffs on EU goods, the top economic policymaker for the eurozone's fourth-largest economy said he believed the EU still wanted to reinforce economic ties with the US 'From the EU side, we are constructive but we are not naive,' Cuerpo said, adding that the bloc would pursue 'other routes protecting our firms and industries' if no agreement with the Trump administration can be reached. A 90-day pause on tariffs announced by the EU and the US is slated to end on July 14. About halfway through that grace period, US President Donald Trump announced 50 percent tariffs on steel imports. The US has also enacted a 25 percent tariff on vehicles and 10 percent so-called reciprocal tariffs on most other goods. On how Spain's current housing woes got here, the minister said a steep drop in construction in Spain following the 2008 financial crisis played a role. So did population growth due to immigration, Cuerpo said, and pressures from an increase in the number of tourists. While building more housing is key, the minister advocated for an all-of-the-above approach, including regulating Spain's housing market and short-term rental platforms. 'For us, there's no silver bullet,' he said.
Associated Press
10-06-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Spain's economy minister says 'overtourism' challenges need to be addressed
MADRID (AP) — Spain could receive as many as 100 million tourists this year, according to some projections, which the country's economy minister said poses challenges for the country's residents that the government can no longer afford to ignore. Last year, Spain received a record 94 million international visitors, making it one of the most visited countries in the world. 'It's important to understand that these record numbers in terms of tourism also pose challenges,' Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo said in an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press. 'And we need to deal with those challenges also for our own population.' Tourism is a key sector for the Southern European nation's economy, which grew faster than any major advanced economy last year at 3.2%, and is projected to grow at 2.4% this year, according to the Bank of Spain, well ahead of the expected eurozone average of 0.9%. But a stubborn housing crisis in which home and rental costs have skyrocketed in cities such as Madrid, Barcelona and elsewhere has led to growing frustration about one aspect tied to tourism in particular: the proliferation of short-term rental apartments in city centers. The country has seen several large protests that have drawn tens of thousands of people to demand more government action on housing. Signs at demonstrations with slogans such as 'Get Airbnb out of our neighborhoods' point to the growing anger. In response, the government recently announced it was cracking down on Airbnb listings that it said were operating in the country illegally, a decision that the company is appealing. 'We are a 49 million-inhabitants country,' Cuerpo said. The record numbers of tourists illustrate the 'attractiveness of our country, but also of the challenge that we have in terms of dealing and providing for a good experience for tourists, but at the same time avoiding overcharging (for) our own services and our own housing,' he said. The Bank of Spain recently said the country has a deficit of 450,000 homes. Building more public housing is critical to solve the problem, Cuerpo said. Spain has a lower stock of public housing than many other major European Union countries. 'This is the key challenge for this term,' the minister said of the country's housing woes. On the possibility of more U.S. tariffs on EU goods, the top economic policymaker for the eurozone's fourth-largest economy said he believed the EU still wanted to reinforce economic ties with the U.S. 'From the EU side, we are constructive but we are not naive,' Cuerpo said, adding that the bloc would pursue 'other routes protecting our firms and industries' if no agreement with the Trump administration can be reached. A 90-day pause on tariffs announced by the EU and the U.S. is slated to end on July 14. About halfway through that grace period, U.S. President Donald Trump announced 50% tariffs on steel imports. The U.S. has also enacted a 25% tariff on vehicles and 10% so-called reciprocal tariffs on most other goods. On how Spain's current housing woes got here, the minister said a steep drop in construction in Spain following the 2008 financial crisis played a role. So did population growth due to immigration, Cuerpo said, and pressures from an increase in the number of tourists. While building more housing is key, the minister advocated for an all-of-the-above approach, including regulating Spain's housing market and short-term rental platforms. 'For us, there's no silver bullet,' he said.
Reuters
04-06-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Spain's Sanchez seeks support from regions to triple housing budget
MADRID, June 4 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday sent a letter to leaders of Spain's regions seeking support to triple investment in social housing to around 7 billion euros ($8.00 billion) over the next four years. Spain needs to increase its social housing stock, currently equivalent to around 3% of all homes, to bring it closer to the European average of 8% in order to alleviate a shortage as buying and renting prices reach record highs. Ahead of a meeting on Friday between Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and regional leaders, he offered to invest 4 billion euros, up from the current 1.7 billion allocated over the last three years, to build more homes and plug a housing deficit estimated at 450,000 by the Bank of Spain. Regional governments, which are mostly controlled by the conservative People's Party (PP), would provide the remaining 2.7 billion euros. That would mean Spain's regions have to agree to increasing their contribution to the housing budget to 40% from the current 25%. The government also wants regions to commit to maintaining social housing under state ownership and prohibiting their sale, government sources said. In the past, Spain built thousands of homes with public funds that later passed into private ownership. Government sources did not provide details about how the increase in housing budget would be funded or whether it would need parliamentary approval. Sanchez's minority coalition government is trying to pass new taxes in Congress to discourage owners from renting homes to tourists and foreigners from buying. The government will also propose creating a new database from all national and regional registers, with the aim of better monitoring rental and housing prices, as well as tourist rentals and available land to build on, the sources said. ($1 = 0.8754 euros)
Irish Times
24-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Spain's Airbnb clampdown: Is tourist accommodation the real issue here?
What has the Spanish government done? It has told holiday accommodation platform Airbnb that its Irish subsidiary, which manages much of its European operations, must take nearly 66,000 of the company's apartment listings off the market. Pablo Bustinduy, minister for consumer affairs, said that the properties, in six different regions of Spain , all breached regulations for tourist accommodation. Some, for example, did not list a licence number, while other listings did not show whether the owner was a private individual or a business. A Madrid court has backed the Spanish government's request for the immediate withdrawal of about 5,000 of those properties, with the remainder still pending further judicial rulings. Bustinduy celebrated the court's backing, saying that 'no company, however big or powerful, is above the law'. Is tourist accommodation the real issue here? Yes and no. Spain has suffered a severe housing crisis caused by a sharp increase in rental costs in recent years – the average rent has doubled over the past decade. There are a number of causes, such as a lack of social housing and red tape slowing down the construction of new homes. But as the number of foreign visitors to Spain each year approaches 100 million, many see tourist apartments as a major culprit, particularly in city centres where they push prices up and drive local people away. In some tourist destinations the problem has become extremely acute; in one area of central Málaga, for example, more than 80 per cent of homes are short-term tourist flats. READ MORE What was Spain's relationship with Airbnb before this latest announcement? Mixed, at best. Earlier this year, the socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez , said there were 'too many Airbnbs and not enough homes'. Meanwhile, the mayor of Barcelona has already announced plans to eliminate the city's 10,000 or so registered short-term holiday rentals by the end of 2028. Some local governments, however, are taking a more conciliatory approach: authorities in Ibiza, the Canary Islands and Murcia have signed deals with Airbnb to co-operate in ensuring existing regulations are obeyed by hosts. What does Airbnb say? The company insists that no proof of rule-breaking on its platform has been provided and that it intends to appeal against the ruling. It also pointed to a previous decision by Spain's supreme court which, the company said, placed the responsibility for property listings on the owners in question, not the company. A spokesperson for Airbnb said: 'Governments across the world are seeing that regulating Airbnb does not alleviate housing concerns or return homes to the market – it only hurts local families who rely on hosting to afford their homes and rising costs.'
