Mental laziness, posh progressives and the lady from Ripoll: the tourist apartment revolt

Barcelona"We shape opinion, but we don't express it." Enrique Lacalle hasn't even finished the sentence when his phone rings. He looks at the screen. "It's the City Hall," he says, laughing. He apologizes—"I'll call you back later"—and winks at the audience: "It was all planned." The gag opens a discussion that directly criticizes the ban on tourist apartments in Barcelona. It will be mostly sober, but also scathing.

The round table, titled The Barcelona of the future: the real impact of eliminating tourist apartmentsThe article is full of opinions, but all pointing in the same direction. A PwC study reveals what has happened: tourist accommodation represents 1.2% of the city's residential stock and has grown by 2.2% in a decade. The conclusion surprises no one: "there is no causal relationship" with the increase in rental prices. Enrique Alcántara, president of Apartur, puts the figures into words. Eliminating tourist apartments, he warns, would make Barcelona "less competitive, poorer, and with the same housing problem." He argues that many licenses will not go to the rental market: "It will be extremely profitable to have an illegal tourist apartment," he warns. Kike Sarasola, president of Room Mate Hotels, offers the entrepreneur's perspective: "You have to listen to the customer. As a hotelier, I started to notice that customers were asking for this," he says. "You have to offer the customer variety; you give them what they ask for," he says.

Although someone might rightly see a false dilemma, the moderator asks a pertinent question: "If tourist apartments are eliminated, does the hotel sector benefit or is the city as a whole harmed…?" Sarasola, who has a clear answer, interrupts before he finishes: "The city as a whole is harmed." He denies that their elimination benefits hotels. Would a hotelier who doesn't own tourist apartments think the same? The audience is left wondering.

Lawyer Pablo Molina (Garrigues) offers his legal perspective. He criticizes the Catalan government's decree for making licenses provisional and defines the decision with a phrase that will be repeated throughout the room: "mental laziness." He cites the case of New York, where restrictions haven't lowered prices, and opens the only legal loophole that appears in the session: the possibility of requesting another five-year license for anyone who can prove they haven't been properly compensated. Europe also enters the debate: the moderator reminds everyone that the European Commission has ruled out a ban on short-term rentals and has emphasized proportionality and regulation.

But the absolute spotlight belongs to economist Gonzalo Bernardos: "Comuns wants to turn [Barcelona] into Zamora. They want to eliminate economic activity and benefit a select group: and it's not the workers of Nou Barris; every time they go there they have to go to the hospital because they develop allergies." He's referring to the "posh-progressive"Who, according to him, don't earn a good living because they don't want to work, but they want to live in the Eixample.

The only disagreement comes at the end: should tourist apartments be in exclusive buildings? Sarasola says yes, Alcántara opposes it if coexistence can be managed. convinced." Molina asks for solutions adapted to each municipality; Bernardos defends acquired rights for the old ones and strict regulation for the new ones. "You know what I call it in Barcelona: the Wild West"Real estate. A politician can grab you on the street and who knows what they'll do to you," he says.

Although the mayor of Barcelona is Jaume Collboni and the ban was enacted by his administration, Bernardos continues his crusade: he criticizes Colau twice, and also the rent control and its "pernicious" effects. Comuns: "Even though they weren't in power, they made the difference."

The final salvo, also from this economist, comes with a prediction that's part irony and part warning. "However, I also tell you that in the next elections this will all end... there's a woman from Ripoll who will change everything."