Latest news with #vivienda
Al Arabiya
27-06-2025
- Business
- Al Arabiya
Spain makes Booking.com scrap 4,000 short-term tourist rentals
Online hotel booking giant on Friday said it had taken down thousands of advertisements in Spain in the leftist government's latest crackdown on illegal short-term tourist rentals. A tourism boom has driven the buoyant Spanish economy but fueled local concern about increasingly scarce and unaffordable housing, a top priority for the minority coalition government. 'We have deleted a very small number of adverts in Spain at the request of the consumer ministry for supplying valid licenses,' said in a statement. The Amsterdam-based platform said the non-compliant adverts represented 'less than two percent' of its 200,000 properties in Spain and that it had always collaborated with the authorities to regulate the short-term rental sector. The consumer rights ministry on Thursday announced had scrapped 4,093 illegal ads, most of them located in the Atlantic Ocean's Canary Islands, a top tourist destination. Spain has also ordered online tourist accommodation giant Airbnb to take down more than 65,000 adverts for violating license rules and has been in a legal battle with the US-based company. The world's second most-visited country hosted a record 94 million foreign tourists in 2024, but residents of hotspots such as Barcelona blame short-term rentals for the housing crisis and changing their neighborhoods. 'We're making progress in the fight against a speculative model that expels people from their neighborhoods and violates the right to a home,' far-left consumer rights minister Pablo Bustinduy wrote on social network Bluesky.
CNA
27-06-2025
- Business
- CNA
Spain makes Booking.com scrap 4,000 tourist rental ads
MADRID: Online hotel booking giant on Friday (Jun 27) said it had taken down thousands of advertisements in Spain in the leftist government's latest crackdown on illegal short-term tourist rentals. A tourism boom has driven the buoyant Spanish economy but fuelled local concern about increasingly scarce and unaffordable housing, a top priority for the minority coalition government. "We have deleted a very small number of adverts in Spain at the request of the consumer ministry for supplying valid licences," said in a statement. The Amsterdam-based platform said the non-compliant adverts represented "less than two per cent" of its 200,000 properties in Spain and that it had always collaborated with the authorities to regulate the short-term rental sector. The consumer rights ministry on Thursday announced had scrapped 4,093 illegal ads, most of them located in the Atlantic Ocean's Canary Islands, a top tourist destination. Spain has also ordered online tourist accommodation giant Airbnb to take down more than 65,000 adverts for violating licensing rules and has been in a legal battle with the US-based company. The world's second most-visited country hosted a record 94 million foreign tourists in 2024, but residents of hotspots such as Barcelona blame short-term rentals for the housing crisis and changing their neighbourhoods. "We're making progress in the fight against a speculative model that expels people from their neighbourhoods and violates the right to a home," far-left consumer rights minister Pablo Bustinduy wrote on social network Bluesky.
Washington Post
19-06-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
Spanish court rejects Airbnb appeal and keeps order to block nearly 66,000 listings
MADRID — A Spanish court on Thursday rejected an appeal by Airbnb and left in place an order to block almost 66,000 rental listings that the government said violated local rules. The government has said the platform's short-term rentals exacerbate Spain's housing crunch while the country welcomes record numbers of tourists .
Al Arabiya
15-06-2025
- Al Arabiya
Spaniards Packing Water Guns Blame Impact of Mass Tourism for Housing Crunch
Protesters used water pistols against unsuspecting tourists in Barcelona on Sunday as demonstrators marched to demand a re-think of an economic model they believe is fueling a housing crunch and erasing the character of the Spanish city. 'The squirt guns are to bother the tourists a bit,' Andreu Martínez said with a chuckle after spritzing a couple seated at an outdoor cafe. '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 Família basilica and the Las Ramblas promenade. Martínez says his rent has risen over 30 percent 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 is coming to an end,' he said. 'We are being pushed out systematically.' Similar demonstrations against tourism are slated in several other Spanish cities on Sunday, including on the Balearic islands of Mallorca and Ibiza, as well as in the Italian postcard city of Venice, Portugal's capital Lisbon, and other cities across southern Europe – marking the first time a protest against tourism has been coordinated across the region. In Barcelona, protesters blew whistles and chanted 'Everywhere you look, all you see are tourists.' They held up homemade signs saying 'One more tourist, one less resident' and 'Your Airbnb was my home.' They stuck stickers saying 'Citizen Self-Defense' in Catalan and 'Tourist Go Home' in English, with a drawing of a water pistol, on the doors of hotels and hostels. There was tension when the march stopped in front of a large hostel where a group emptied their water guns at two workers positioned in the entrance. They also set off firecrackers next to the hostel and opened a can of pink smoke. One worker spat at the protesters as he slammed the hostel's doors. American tourists Wanda and Bill Dorozenski were walking along Barcelona's main luxury shopping boulevard where the protest started. They received a squirt or two, but she said it was actually refreshing given the 83 degrees Fahrenheit (28.3 degrees Celsius) weather. 'That's lovely, thank you, sweetheart,' Wanda said to the squirter. 'I am not going to complain. These people are feeling something, to them that is very personal and is perhaps destroying some areas (of the city).' Cities across the world are struggling with how to cope with overtourism and a boom in short-term rental platforms like Airbnb, but perhaps nowhere has surging discontent been so evident as in Barcelona, where protesters first took to firing squirt guns at tourists during a protest last summer. Spaniards have also staged several large protests in Barcelona, Madrid, and other cities in recent years to demand lower rents. There has also been a confluence of the pro-housing and anti-tourism struggles: When thousands marched through the streets of Spain's capital in April, some held homemade signs saying 'Get Airbnb out of our neighborhoods.' Spain, with a population of 48 million, hosted a record 94 million international visitors in 2024, compared with 83 million in 2019, making it one of the most-visited countries in the world. A poll in June 2022 found just 2 percent of Spaniards thought housing was a national problem. Three years later, almost a third of those surveyed said it is now a leading concern. Spain's official public opinion office said 76 percent of people responded 'Yes' last year when asked if they were in favor of tighter government regulations on tourist apartments. (Those polls were of 4,000 people with a margin of error of 1.6 percent.) Spain's municipal and federal authorities are striving to show they hear the public outcry and are taking appropriate action to put the tourism industry on notice, despite the fact it contributes 12 percent of national GDP. Last month, Spain's government ordered Airbnb to remove almost 66,000 holiday rentals from the platform, which it said had violated local rules. Spain's Consumer Rights Minister Pablo Bustinduy told The Associated Press shortly after the crackdown on Airbnb that 'the tourism sector cannot jeopardize the constitutional rights of the Spanish people,' which enshrines their right to housing and well-being. Carlos Cuerpo, the economy minister, said in a separate interview that the government is aware it must tackle the unwanted side effects of mass tourism. And last year, Barcelona stunned Airbnb and other services who help rent properties to tourists by announcing the elimination of all 10,000 short-term rental licenses in the city by 2028. The short-term rental industry, for its part, believes it is being treated unfairly. 'I think a lot of our politicians have found an easy scapegoat to blame for the inefficiencies of their policies in terms of housing and tourism over the last 10, 15, 20 years,' Airbnb's general director for Spain and Portugal, Jaime Rodríguez de Santiago, recently told the AP. That argument either hasn't trickled down to the ordinary residents of Barcelona or isn't resonating. But Txema Escorsa, a teacher in Barcelona, doesn't just oppose Airbnb in his home city; he has ceased to use it even when traveling elsewhere out of principle. 'In the end, you realize that this is taking away housing from people,' he said. The government measures were not enough to keep Sunday's marchers at home in Barcelona.
The Independent
11-06-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Record-breaking numbers of tourists to visit Spain – but locals aren't happy
Spain 's Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo acknowledges the challenges posed by record tourism numbers, with 94 million international visitors last year and projections of 100 million this year. A housing crisis, marked by skyrocketing home and rental costs in cities like Madrid and Barcelona, is fueling frustration over the increase of short-term rentals. The Spanish government is cracking down on illegal Airbnb listings in response to protests demanding action on housing affordability. The Bank of Spain reports a deficit of 450,000 homes, with Minister Cuerpo emphasizing the need to build more public housing to address the issue. Minister Cuerpo also addressed potential US tariffs on EU goods, stating the EU aims to strengthen economic ties with the US but will protect its firms and industries if necessary.
