Mark Stücklin
Catalonia has approved a new law regulating seasonal and room rentals, presented as a bold response to the housing crisis. In reality, it looks like another symbolic intervention that will shrink supply, distort incentives, and end up benefiting precisely the wrong people.
The Catalan Parliament approved today what the Government calls a “pioneering” law to regulate seasonal (alquiler de temporada) and room rentals, closing what it sees as loopholes in existing rent controls. The law will come into force the day after its publication in the official gazette, likely tomorrow, meaning immediate consequences for landlords and tenants alike.
Under the new rules, seasonal rentals will effectively be treated like standard residential leases, with prices capped by the official rent index. Room rentals are also capped, with the sum of individual room rents not allowed to exceed the regulated maximum for the property as a whole. Contracts must specify the purpose of the temporary stay, such as work or study, and include the tenant’s permanent address elsewhere.
A solution in search of a problem
The political diagnosis is that landlords are “escaping” rent controls by switching from long-term to seasonal contracts. But this confuses cause and effect. Seasonal and room rentals did not proliferate because landlords suddenly became creative; they expanded because rigid rent controls made traditional long-term renting increasingly unattractive.
By extending controls to these formats, the law removes one of the last flexible segments of the rental market. That will not translate into more affordable long-term housing. It will simply mean fewer rentals overall.
Who really loses out
Seasonal rentals are essential for groups that do not fit neatly into the long-term tenant box: students, visiting academics, project workers, businesspeople on temporary assignments, and people coming to Catalonia for medical treatment. Room rentals, meanwhile, are often the only viable entry point for young people and newcomers.
Reducing this supply does not help locals looking for stable housing. It just makes their options scarcer, more competitive, and more precarious.
An awkward winner: wealthy foreigners
Ironically, one of the main beneficiaries of this reform is likely to be well-off foreign tenants. Not all seasonal rentals will disappear. Those that remain will logically target tenants with high incomes, strong guarantees, and low perceived risk. In Barcelona, that often means affluent foreigners on corporate packages or extended stays.
For these tenants, regulated seasonal rents may even look like a bargain. For local students, junior professionals, or people in need of short-term accommodation for health or family reasons, the opposite will be true. They will be pushed to the back of the queue, or out of the market altogether.
More regulation, same housing crisis
Supporters argue the law defends housing as a “right” rather than a source of “anguish”. But rights do not build homes. Supply does. This measure adds yet another layer of control to a market already strained by regulation, legal uncertainty, and political hostility towards private landlords.
Catalonia’s housing crisis is driven by a chronic shortage of homes in high-demand areas. Regulating seasonal and room rentals does nothing to address that shortage. It simply reallocates limited supply towards safer, wealthier tenants and away from those the policy claims to protect.
If the objective is genuinely more affordable housing, the focus should be on increasing supply, not on tightening the screws on an already shrinking rental market.
