Regulatory pressure is beginning to be felt in the holiday rental market. Last year, with the entry into force of the state registry, this pressure began to increase. in order to operate legally Nearly 6,000 tourist apartments were lost in Catalonia through digital platforms, according to the National Statistics Institute (INE). This represents an 11.3% decrease compared to 2014. The decline recorded last year leaves the total number of tourist apartments in Catalonia at 46,915. This is the lowest supply of tourist apartments recorded by the INE since 2020, when it began counting them. This decrease means that one in four apartments has disappeared since then, when there were approximately 63,200 apartments designated for tourist rentals or tourist accommodation, almost 26% fewer apartments. This decline has coincided with other control measures implemented by the Catalan Government, as well as measures to increase the stock of residential rental housing. The most pronounced drop was recorded in the province of Barcelona. Data collected by the INE (National Institute of Statistics) shows that nearly 40% of tourist apartments operating in 2020 have closed. The number has fallen from almost 26,000 to just over 15,700. In the last year alone, 2,416 apartments have disappeared, representing 13% of the number that existed in 2024. As the statistics institute shows, there are currently more tourist apartments in Girona (17,754) than in Barcelona (15,741). With these figures, Catalonia has a proportion of tourist apartments of 1.2% of the total number of registered dwellings, a proportion that stands at 0.61% in the city of Barcelona.

Imagine being about to buy an apartment, after searching extensively and juggling finances to afford the down payment, only to have the owner tell you it's already sold to another buyer. And not only that, but the real estate agency adds that the entire property will be used for tourist apartments. A situation that wouldn't surprise anyone today, but more than ten years ago, it left Francesc Serrano and his partner reeling. He, who owned a software development company for third parties, arrived at the office and had the staff investigate whether tourist apartments were common or if he'd just had bad luck.

When vacation planning begins, the process of finding a hotel or apartment now goes through Booking, without depending on third parties like travel agencies. This change has had many impacts on the day-to-day operations of these establishments. With Booking, they have gained visibility and transparency—reviews play a significant role in choosing one place over another—but they have also had to adapt to clauses they consider abusive. The price offered by Booking is usually the lowest because, as industry leaders criticize, the platform doesn't allow them to market their rooms cheaper on other digital platforms, not even on its website. This is without forgetting that hotels must pay a fee for each reservation, an average of 15% in Europe, although it can reach more than 20%.

Faced with the proliferation of tourist apartments, authorities are trying to monitor a market that has gotten out of control. Since July 1, the state registry for legally operating digital platforms has been in effect, adding another layer of control to others such as the Generalitat registry or the licenses granted by Barcelona City Council. According to the latest available data, corresponding to last Friday, Barcelona's state registry lists 6,759 tourist apartments. They represent nearly 68% of the 10,000 apartments with a license granted by the City Council. Therefore, a third have not yet been registered. This does not include illegal apartments, for which there is no exact figure, but the council detects between 300 and 400 monthly.