Over 50,000 illegal shelters are being removed from platforms - to make housing affordable again
Anyone looking for a home in Spain knows the problem: rents are rising, apartments are becoming scarce - and while more and more families are being pushed out of their neighborhoods, tourists are moving into nicely furnished vacation apartments. This is now set to end. Spain's government wants to have over 53,000 of these accommodations deleted from the major booking platforms.
We are talking about apartments that are not actually allowed to be rented out. They do not meet the legal requirements, do not have a valid registration - and can still be booked online. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez speaks of "thousands of irregularities". These apartments should now disappear from the market - and instead be made available again to those who really need a home.
The goal: cities for living, not for selfies
The government wants to have more than just a few entries deleted - it is pursuing a larger goal: living space should be living space again. Not a money-making machine for investors, not a party zone for weekend tourists. For far too long, it has been accepted that city centers have become a backdrop for mass tourism, while locals have been pushed further and further to the margins.
Travel hotspots such as Seville, Barcelona, Málaga and Madrid are particularly affected. The pressure on the housing market is particularly high there. The reason: more and more normal apartments have been converted into lucrative vacation homes over the years - with serious consequences for the people who want to live there.
Clear rules have been in place since July: Anyone who wants to run a vacation rental needs an official registration number. And this is exactly where many providers fail - because their apartments do not meet the requirements. Now the government is drawing the consequences.
People's patience is at an end
The housing shortage in Spain is not a new issue - but the mood is changing. At the beginning of April, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in various cities. Their demand: housing must no longer be an object of speculation. No more vacation apartments in every house, no more investors buying up entire blocks of flats to rent out to tourists.
Many of these illegal vacation homes are not created out of ill will, but out of greed for profit. And because of a policy that has looked the other way for far too long. While the number of vacation homes increases from year to year, social housing projects fall far short of demand.
Now the government wants to take countermeasures. Apartments should belong to families again, not to the next guest with a suitcase on wheels. It's about quality of life - and the right to live where you live and work.
Living where others go on vacation? Hardly possible for many
It's sad that it had to come to this. Illegal vacation apartments were tolerated for years - because it was convenient, because it brought in money and because tourism always sounded somehow positive. But it has long been clear that when every second old building in Barcelona or Madrid is only used for vacation purposes, something is going very wrong.
This is not about tourist bashing. It's about justice. Housing is not a luxury. It is a basic right. And anyone who undermines this should not be surprised if people take to the streets at some point.
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