In 30% of the apartments in the Right of the Eixample district, there are no residents.

BarcelonaOf all the neighborhoods in Barcelona, ​​the Eixample Right is one of those that has suffered the most from the impact of globalization and the rise of platforms like Airbnb on housing. Some time ago, the residents' association reported that between hotels, guesthouses, hostels, and tourist apartments, 40.7% of the beds in the neighborhood are for tourists. Now, as part of the efforts to regulate that the priority use of housing throughout the city be for permanent residence, the City Council is providing more data that helps to paint a picture of the state of the housing stock: it indicates that 30% of the apartments in the Eixample are unoccupied.

This figure is taken from the report accompanying the proposed amendment to the Metropolitan General Plan (PGM) to establish that permanent and habitual use of housing is the "priority" in the city and takes precedence over temporary use. The document, which ARA has obtained, includes an analysis of the housing situation in the Catalan capital. Among the aspects it addresses is the percentage of apartments in the city used as primary residences. Or, to put it another way, how many of the apartments in Barcelona are home to residents who have established themselves in the city and, consequently, form a sense of community.

To this end, the report cross-references cadastral and census data. The result is the accompanying chart, which shows, neighborhood by neighborhood, the percentage of homes that are regularly occupied. The chart is from 2024, but at a glance, it's clear that, beyond the extremes, the lighter areas are in the city center. Thus, while the overall percentage of occupied homes in Barcelona is 81.2%, this percentage is significantly lower in the central neighborhoods: Gòtic (63%); Eixample Right (70%); Sant Pere, Santa Caterina i la Ribera (71%); Vila de Gràcia (73%); and Eixample Left (76%). In the case of more peripheral neighborhoods with lower percentages, such as Vallvidrera or Marina del Prat Vermell, it's important to consider that these are either developing areas or have significantly less housing.

While the percentage of primary residences is lower than in the Gothic Quarter, the data for the Right Eixample is especially relevant because it is one of the city's most densely populated neighborhoods, and comparatively, there is much more housing. But where does that 30% of apartments in the Right Eixample that are not primary residences go? Broadly speaking, there are three categories: tourist or seasonal rental apartments; second homes of foreigners who only spend a few months in the city; and, finally, businesses—for example, notary offices, hairdressers, or law firms—that occupy apartments classified as residential, usually on mezzanine and first floors.

The impact of tourist apartments in this area is clear. At the time the photograph was taken, the Right Eixample was the fourth neighborhood in the city with the most housing (29,001), but seventh in terms of the number of primary residences (18,967). It also has the highest proportion (9.15%) of tourist apartments compared to the total number of homes. And this only counts legal ones. The president of the residents' association, Jaume Artigues, emphasizes in a conversation with ARA that this proportion has been increasing since 2024 due to the trickle of new tourist apartments that have taken advantage of the legal gap which forced the City Council to validate licenses that had been requested during the judicial suspension of the PEUAT.

For this reason, the municipal government has always maintained that the elimination of the approximately 10,000 tourist apartments in the city, starting in 2028, should decisively contribute to expanding the stock of housing available for permanent residence. However, especially in the wake of the housing law and the rent cap, another form of apartment use has recently multiplied in Barcelona: seasonal rentals. The report includes a study carried out by the Barcelona Metropolitan Housing Observatory, which, as explained the NOWThe report indicated that by June 2023, in neighborhoods like Barceloneta, this type of listing already accounted for 40% of all rental ads in the area. In the Eixample district, this type of listing represented 22% of all rental listings. This trend has only intensified since then.

That's why, when the city government and the Barcelona en Comú party agreed a year ago to modify the General Metropolitan Plan (PGM), the focus was on limiting seasonal rentals by specifying the types of economic activities that can be carried out in city housing. At that time, the law that the Catalan Parliament approved just a month ago was not yet in effect, and this could have been Barcelona's way of restricting supply. With the Catalan law now approved—although appealed to the Constitutional Court—the municipal regulations are complementary and allow for influencing the housing market from another perspective.

While the law emphasizes discouraging seasonal rentals by limiting profit, the modification of the PGM allows for starting from the opposite extreme. That is, not focusing on setting a maximum for a specific type of rental, but on establishing a minimum number of permanent residences in each neighborhood. A legal framework that opens up a range of possibilities—also from a tax perspective—and that should help reduce both seasonal rentals and home purchases by people who don't live there permanently. This is a point in its favor. the sentence The Constitutional Court (TC) has ruled on the decree that allows for the elimination of tourist apartments, defending the right of public administrations to limit, in the public interest, the uses that property owners can make of a constitutional right such as housing. Òscar Gorgues, manager of the Barcelona Chamber of Urban Property, expresses his reservations about this type of regulation. "In this city, we sometimes use umbrellas even when it's not raining," he quips, citing the proposed ban on tourist apartments as an example. He then turns the issue around, asking for an assessment of the city's actual need for this type of temporary or tourist housing, which it cannot eliminate. "We are dealing with a cosmopolitan city that needs to have adequate housing for people who need temporary residence," he argues, adding that there are also Barcelona residents who travel to other parts of Europe for temporary stays. All of this, however, will need to be addressed in more detail later. Prioritizing residential use in the General Urban Development Plan (PGM) over other uses—framed under the concept of "assimilated uses"—is only the first step in the regulations. From here, it will be necessary to implement them through a special plan or specific ordinance that determines when and how this regulation is applied. That is, in which specific areas, with what percentage, and with what exceptions. This is where the City Council will have to tread carefully to avoid appeals and challenges like those it experienced with the Special Urban Development Plan for Tourist Accommodation (PEUAT).

Picapela Comunes-ERC

For now, however, the modification of the General Urban Plan is up in the air. Last Tuesday, the City Council's Urban Planning Commission took a majority position. against The measure's provisional approval was delayed. The reason? The ongoing feud between Comuns and Esquerra in the city council. The Republicans, who have been among the main advocates for regulating seasonal rentals, voted against the plan agreed upon by the PSC and Comuns, arguing that it is unnecessary now that the Catalan Parliament has already passed the law. However, behind the ERC councilors' stance lies their discontent with Barcelona en Comú for having rejected their agreement with the PSC in the December plenary session. This agreement aimed to create a study commission against speculative property purchases, a commission that was to be chaired by the Republican leader in the City Council, Elisenda Alamany. Its creation had already been withdrawn. in extremis The item was removed from the agenda of the November plenary session because it lacked sufficient guaranteed support. In fact, the group led by Alamany is willing to change its vote in the plenary session as long as the Comuns also vote in favor of creating their commission, and this has been conveyed to both the Comuns and the Catalan Government. Although it initially seemed that this would be the case, according to information obtained by ARA, Barcelona en Comú has ultimately decided not to bring the MPGM reform to this Friday's plenary session, and it will remain shelved, at least until the February plenary session. Another debate that has also been on the City Council's agenda for some time is scheduled for later: that of businesses located in residential buildings, mostly on mezzanine and first floors. Although they are not the target of this reform, they contribute to the percentage of unoccupied apartments. The report does not provide data on the prevalence of this situation in, for example, the 30% of apartments without neighbors in the Right Eixample district. So far, the municipal government's approach has not been to regulate this type of business, but rather to find ways to incentivize—when possible—the relocation of these businesses from upper floors to vacant street-level premises.