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BARCELONA: Tourist rental licence moratorium encouraging speculation

Barcelona Old Town
Barcelona Old Town

A recent article in the Spanish daily El Mundo reported that tourist rental licences in Barcelona deliver big yields, generating speculative pressure on prices.

“One of the factors that is increasing the value of properties in cities like Barcelona are licences for tourist accommodation,” explains the article published this February, reporting claims made by the investment and wealth management firm Laborde Marcet.

The combination of more than seven million tourists visiting Barcelona each year, and a moratorium on new short-term rental licences introduced by the municipal government in 2014, have created a “great demand for tourist apartments, especially in central neighbourhoods.” The ban on new licences required to rent legally to tourists has “pushed up the price of permits.” There are currently around 7,000 licences granted for the whole city.

“The availability of a tourist licence delivers yields of between 120% and 125%,” says Miquel Laborde, quoted in the article, which also argues that the moratorium has triggered speculation driving up property prices. However, it is not clear what kind of yield the article is referring to.

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SPI Member Comments

One thought on “BARCELONA: Tourist rental licence moratorium encouraging speculation

  • Glancing at the data from AirBnB, it would appear that were more than 8,000 units listed for Barcelona on AirBnB in January, a slow month for tourism. And there are some owners who own multiple units in Barcelona listed on AirBnB. Of course, many owners of tourist rentals moved away from AirBnB to other platforms because of the increased scrutiny of AirBnB by most major city governments around the world.

    http://insideairbnb.com/get-the-data.html

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