Barcelona fails to stop irregular 'coliving' in a Gràcia blog

BarcelonaTen months after a Barcelona City Council inspection deemed the construction work that allowed the conversion of part of a Gràcia apartment block into a coliving complex illegal, it is still possible to rent one of its rooms for between 810 and 940 euros per month. First Deputy Mayor Laia Bonet admitted this Tuesday before the Urban Planning Commission that, despite several proceedings and fines certifying the irregularity of the construction, the council has so far failed to get the owner to regularize the situation. This was criticized by Barcelona en Comú Councilor Lucía Martín, who considered that the government is not doing enough to curb the activity and accused it of acting with "negligence and permissiveness."

The case of this building on Sant Agustí Street is yet another example of a business model that has grown in the city to try to circumvent rental price limits. How explained the NOW, the company New Amsterdam Developers (NAD) acquired the eleven-story building in December 2023 and informed the residents via certified mail that it would not renew their rental contracts. Soon, those apartments were divided into three rooms managed by Enter Coliving, a company that manages temporary rentals, for which the asking prices were between 800 and 960 euros. In total, around 2,700 euros; more than three times the price that tenants had previously paid for the entire apartment.

After the neighbors reported the case in January 2024 and even the Barcelona Ombudsman got involved, the City Council carried out an inspection of the building and determined that at least two of the apartments had been carried out irregularly—without obtaining the necessary permit—and that three more had. This led to a file—to which ARA has had access—which was notified to the owner in August, according to which NAD had two months to regularize the works. Despite responding to the City Council stating that it would do so, it has not.

This led to a new resolution on October 23, in which the City Council ordered the demolition of the works and the return of the apartments to their original condition. Two months later, the inspection again confirmed that the works had not been legalized nor demolished, so the owner was imposed a first coercive fine of 500 euros, just over half of what it charges for one month in one of the rooms offered. Then there is a second fine of another 500 euros. The owner has paid both, but has neither demolished the works nor stopped the coliving activity it is carrying out thanks to the renovation.

Possible violation of 30%.

Councilor for the Commons, Lucía Martín, criticized the City Council's actions, accusing it of not taking action until residents and the Ombudsman forced it to, and of issuing "ridiculous urban fines" instead of demanding the cessation of activity and opening disciplinary proceedings. "They're looking the other way," she charged.

Bonet—who expressed confidence that the future regulation being drafted in Parliament will allow the rent cap to also apply to room rentals—asserted yesterday that Barcelona City Council will continue to impose fines on property owners until the works are restored to legality. She also announced that the City Council's technical services are investigating whether, given that this was a major renovation, the property owner could have also violated the requirement to reserve 30% for social housing. "We will be decisive against this trickery," she concluded.