Who Will Benefit from Barcelona’s Crackdown on Tourist Apartments?

Barcelona is preparing for a major transformation of its property market that goes far beyond the familiar claim that the city will “ban tourist apartments.” The city council maintains its plan not to renew the roughly 10,000 existing licences for tourist-use apartments by 2028. But the less-discussed question is a different one: who owns these properties, and who will benefit when they can no longer operate as tourist accommodation?

Ownership is far more diversified than the political debate might suggest. According to data compiled by El País from figures provided by the tourist-apartment association “Apartur”, the approximately 10,000 tourist apartments belong to around 5,000 owners. Many are private individuals who own one or two properties, but there is also a group of around 200 owners with portfolios of dozens of apartments. The largest identified owner is Inmobiliaria Gallardo, which controls 245 tourist apartments in Barcelona. There are also companies, families and businessmen linked to the hotel sector with substantial property portfolios.

This means the economic impact of the policy will be uneven. For a small private owner, losing the tourist-use licence could mean replacing relatively high tourist-rental income with a residential rental model subject to tighter regulation. For those who own dozens of properties, however, the situation offers considerably more room for manoeuvre: they can sell, renovate, convert the properties to other uses, or simply wait for the regulatory framework to change.

And this is where the fundamental question arises: will these apartments return to the residential housing market?

The city government’s strategy is based on that assumption. Barcelona wants tourist-use apartments to be progressively incorporated into the residential housing stock once their authorisations expire. Catalan legislation establishes that these licences are temporary and makes their continuation subject to urban-planning rules. The city council has set 2028 as the target date for the disappearance of the existing authorisations.

But the matter is far from settled. The sector’s main business association has challenged the policy and called for greater legal certainty and, in some cases, compensation. At the same time, the European debate could further complicate the situation: restrictions on tourist rentals must comply with European legal requirements, including principles of justification and proportionality.

In the meantime, property owners have several options. They can move into the long-term residential rental market, turn to seasonal rentals where regulations allow it, sell the properties, or seek other permitted uses. None of these options, however, guarantees that the apartments will ultimately become affordable homes for Barcelona residents.

That is the central uncertainty surrounding the plan.

If thousands of apartments return to the residential market, tenants would be the biggest potential beneficiaries. Supply would increase and, at least in theory, some pressure on rents could ease. But there could be other winners too: owners with enough financial strength to wait, investors willing to acquire potentially discounted assets, and property operators capable of converting them to alternative uses.

Hotels could also benefit indirectly if some of the visitors who currently choose tourist apartments shift towards hotel accommodation.

That is why the real battle will not necessarily end when the last licence expires. It may begin afterwards.

The decisive question will be what happens to those 10,000 apartments: whether they become homes for residents, change hands, move into the seasonal-rental market, or simply find another way to remain connected to the tourism business.

Barcelona is not merely eliminating a model of accommodation. It is redistributing opportunities within its property market. And in 2028, it will become possible to see who benefited most: the residents who need housing, the owners who control the assets, or those who find a new way to make money from them.