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Barcelona will eliminate tourist apartments

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Re: Barcelona will eliminate tourist apartments

#121

Post by Rinzler89 »

mattrighetti wrote: post #48
deutschepost wrote: post #3

Good. Tourists should sleep in hotels and locals should sleep in their flats. Platforms like AirBnB only put oil in the fire when it comes to housing crises.

> Tourists should sleep in hotels and locals should sleep in their flats. What if we let people decide what they should/n't do with their own property instead?

Your property is still subject to local and national laws and regulations, it's not some lawless piece of property where you can do whatever you want just because your name is on the property document.

I might own my own apartment, but I can't turn it into a pub, I can't turn it into a disco, I can't turn it into an auto service garage, I can't grow weed in it, I can't turn it into a shop, all these I can't do because it will negatively affect the life of my neighbors.

Re: Barcelona will eliminate tourist apartments

#122

Post by SeanAnderson »

YossarianFrPrez wrote: post #91
SeanAnderson wrote: post #25

Barcelona has a population of ~1.7 million. The metro area surrounding is ~5.7 million. The metro area grew by ~100k in the past four years. They are freeing up ~10,000 houses over the next four years with this legislation. Barcelona built ~15,000 new properties between 2011 and 2020. The math don't math. It's a drop in the bucket. The entire impact of AirBnB + all housing built in the last decade does not offset the…

True, and I agree this is nowhere near enough. But wouldn't a "defense in depth" approach be wise? There are no all or nothing solutions, especially when it comes to policy in a large city. Any bit of relief will no doubt likely be welcome.

Yeah, I agree. I think the change is a step in the right direction to address this specific concern. I think there will be some unintended consequences like loss of tourism dollars which will impact small business, but those concerns seem less important to voters.

Still, I fear that people generally look to politics for simple, one sentence solutions to problems which take decades to manifest.

Barcelona is the 68th densest city in the world. You look at a satellite map and you can see they have a very well planned city layout. It's dense and filled with tall buildings.

At some point the only lever left to pull is outright banning of foreigners. I'm not condoning that policy - just trying to highlight the futility of attempting to protect a desirable area from overpopulation.

Re: Barcelona will eliminate tourist apartments

#123

Post by Frieren »

wslh wrote: post #35

Bye bye to the great experience of living in Barcelona like a local for months. How will they limit temporal renting? Where is the limit line? Should you be a resident in the age of remote working?

You can still rent an apartment for months. It is going to be probably cheaper and as a tenant you will have legal protections that AirBnB users do not have.

> How will they limit temporal renting

Like any other illegal activity. My best guess is that the police will act when neighbors complain about noise or other nuisances. The fact that it is illegal will make easy to evict the occupants and fine the owner.

Re: Barcelona will eliminate tourist apartments

#124

Post by dubcanada »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #47
doctorpangloss wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone wants lower housing prices, except for the house they currently own.

People who own a home, and don't have plans to move, would benefit from housing prices falling everywhere : property taxes go down, and other prices correlated with housing go down. Two categories where people don't want pricing to go down: If you have plans to move and prices aren't falling everywhere , the proceeds of a sale aren't enough to buy elsewhere. And if your bank owns the home rather than you, falling pri…

> And if your bank owns the home rather than you, falling prices screw you over because you owe far more to the bank than you could make by selling.

So like what 99% of homes? If you rent you don't own it, if you own a condo you don't own it, if you own a house outright you are probably close to 1%.

Most of Barcelona is rent/condos. There is not a ton of 250m2 mansions in downtown Barcelona.

Re: Barcelona will eliminate tourist apartments

#125

Post by toomuchtodo »

jupp0r wrote: post #92
toomuchtodo wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I argue AirBnB should be banned anywhere building cannot be done at a rate which ensures affordable housing can exist for locals. Whether that is due to construction labor shortages, density, zoning, whatever, it does not matter. AirBnB can exist where there is surplus housing capacity, but should be banned anywhere else. Locals get votes, tourists and AirBnB do not. The harm of not being able to afford housing is fa…

Following your logic, why not ban hotels?

Hotels go through an approval process to be built, and are regulated (where as AirBnB exists to skirt lodging regulation). Hotels are not competing against residential housing, but AirBnB is.

Re: Barcelona will eliminate tourist apartments

#126

Post by Nevermark »

SeanAnderson wrote: post #25

Barcelona has a population of ~1.7 million. The metro area surrounding is ~5.7 million. The metro area grew by ~100k in the past four years. They are freeing up ~10,000 houses over the next four years with this legislation. Barcelona built ~15,000 new properties between 2011 and 2020. The math don't math. It's a drop in the bucket. The entire impact of AirBnB + all housing built in the last decade does not offset the…

Pricing isn’t linear on the supply-demand curve.

Small marginal improvements in tight supply can result in noticeable price drops.

Which would certainly be welcome, even if greater supply still needs to be created.

Re: Barcelona will eliminate tourist apartments

#127

Post by eesmith »

popcalc wrote: post #41
lostlogin wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who do you think is going to do the work every facet of your life requires?

Go to Kuwait, everyone, even commoners host their maids and cooks in their main residences. Maybe we'll see a mainstream return to these arrangements in the States.

Your "everyone" does not seem to include the maids and cooks, almost as if you consider them nobodies.

Re: Barcelona will eliminate tourist apartments

#128

Post by mattrighetti »

thinkingtoilet wrote: post #87
mattrighetti wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Tourists should sleep in hotels and locals should sleep in their flats. What if we let people decide what they should/n't do with their own property instead?

Because we're adults that realize garbage dumps shouldn't be next to schools. And sometimes as society we make decisions that are good for the majority of people. I'm sure you'd love it if someone poisoned your ground water, but they did it by burying toxic materials on their property.

When Airbnb landlords won't rent to locals at all because it's not convenient enough for them do so what will you do for the good of the majority of the people? Forcefully seize their apartment because people need it?

Re: Barcelona will eliminate tourist apartments

#129

Post by oliwarner »

SeanAnderson wrote: post #25

Barcelona has a population of ~1.7 million. The metro area surrounding is ~5.7 million. The metro area grew by ~100k in the past four years. They are freeing up ~10,000 houses over the next four years with this legislation. Barcelona built ~15,000 new properties between 2011 and 2020. The math don't math. It's a drop in the bucket. The entire impact of AirBnB + all housing built in the last decade does not offset the…

But it's not just supply. The market rate for holiday letting has driven all lets up. Investors jump at a quick 10%.

This should depress prices, release rentals and sales. You're right, it's probably not enough, but like many urban centres, central Barcelona isn't that flexible.

Re: Barcelona will eliminate tourist apartments

#130

Post by LightHugger »

cs702 wrote: post #99
SeanAnderson wrote: post #25

Barcelona has a population of ~1.7 million. The metro area surrounding is ~5.7 million. The metro area grew by ~100k in the past four years. They are freeing up ~10,000 houses over the next four years with this legislation. Barcelona built ~15,000 new properties between 2011 and 2020. The math don't math. It's a drop in the bucket. The entire impact of AirBnB + all housing built in the last decade does not offset the…

[Deleted] See LightHugger's comment and my response below: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40753303 ]

This is red-baiting. Every politician is politically motivated and doesn't actually say anything about why it's bad to ensure people have housing and keep out obnoxious airbnb tourists from residential areas.

Spooky scary socialists, send shivers down your spine. Free healthcare will shock your soul, seal your deed tonight.

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