Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/06/26/barcelona-to-ban-airbnbs-and-other-short-term-rentals.html
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Good.
And so should we all.
Mind you something like 98-99% of them are illegal here anyway but the state refuses to enforce this particular law. Because the government are right wing arseholes.
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Contributed by Jennifer Sandlin
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Good for them.
If the STR industry would build their own buildings there would be far less of a problem. But instead they insist on glomming on to the stock of available housing formerly used by actual residents.
After a battle royal, my town capped it at 200 STR units for now, about 2% of available housing here. Every one of them was previously a rental or live-in home – not a single unit was purpose built. Every one operating in a residential neighborhood was there illegally.
By far the largest supporter of ‘more’ STRs was the real estate industry. They did not quite prevail, fortunately. But there are still twice as many STRs available as rentals or sales listed on Zillow. Housing prices are astronomical, there is almost nothing affordable available, social media has new housing pleas every day. Barcelona has tried it and installed an exit ramp – hope they stick to their guns, there is a lot of money in play.
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I think this is a great move, and quite a bit overdue. I actually thought that Barcelona had capped the number of permits a few years ago and stopped issuing new ones.
It’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out - tourism is a decent chunk of the Spanish economy (like 10% of gdp and jobs), but it’s gotten way out of balance (in Ibiza people who work in the hotels/restaurants basically can’t afford to live there anymore) and there’s a growing “tourist go home” sentiment in a lot of places.
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Same thing in Maui; STR owners are screeching because, after the mayor begged them to help people burned out of Lahaina (with the predictable results from absentee landlords), the government is starting to crack down on the excessive number of vacation rentals, especially the unregistered ones. People are tired of the bad alterations to neighborhoods incurred when half the places around you are high turnover.
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This should be a model for other cities plagued by tourists like Rome, Paris, Berlin or Athens. Good on them.
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Refugees welcome.
Tourists go home!
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oh how i wish we could do something like this here in the keys! but as @MadLibrarian said above, there is a lot of money involved.
that being why the village council in Islamorada has currently zero interest in curbing the STR situation. there is also a dearth of housing for anyone who is not, at least, a multi-millionaire. even if they should decide to make a stand in Islamorada or Key West, DeSantis would stop it dead in its tracks with his developer/real estate large cash donors. (that, and the fact that he absolutely hates the keys. no home rule for you!)
even in my neighborhood - quite, dead end, dry lots (no waterfront) homes, there are three STR houses. the renters typically stay three- to-five days, are generally quiet and tidy. but i am not in Key West, where they turn up to be drunk and disorderly.
limiting the airbnb type rentals and securing more of those homes for affordable(?)* housing for the people who work down here serving the goddamn tourons, would be great.
[*] “affordable” who am i kidding? in a zip code where the median home price is well over a million USD, is there even a hope for something equitable?
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Barcelona settled on the poorest possible policy implementation to control crowding out resident renters… They issued 10k golden licenses, to essentially winners of a lottery.
Those owners were protected from market competition and made astronomical sums. Those flats we’re businesses only.
SF has got it right. Prove you own it, register with the city, cap at 90 days a year. Rent your own place when your gone for a long while, no incentive to turn it into a hotel.
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I eagerly await the disruption of a fifth line in that when our betters come up with a new way of making life worse while destroying the planet and making the worst of the worst wealthier and wealthier.
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I love murderbot though! They are awesome.
And so sweet too.
In the good old days there was a well understood mechanism for short term rentals. It was called the hotel.
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Airbnbs surround us.
There are two vacant lots across from us, a builder is eyeing them to build two dedicated Airbnbs.
Hotels in a residential zone okay, me running any other business out of my house not okay.
Our city also gave out variances to two bars within 500 feet of residential homes for outdoor live entertainment. They think those two bars disturbing the peace brings in money for the community. The bar owner is getting rich, I get a headache.
There’s nothing I can do except vote out the current city council. But so far that ain’t working.
Gonna try again this November.
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I live just outside Dublin city centre in old working-class housing, so the houses are small but have a lot of charm and most have been renovated so they’re very nice on the inside but give an old-time asthethic on the outside. At the height of the AirBnb boom there were easily a half-dozen on my road alone, but when even the minimal regulation came in the owners quietly sold them on or turned them back into long-term rental.
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