The wave of shop closures in Barcelona reopens the debate on limiting the rent of commercial premises

BarcelonaThe steady trickle of closures of historic businesses continues to take its toll on Barcelona. In just the last few weeks, shops that had been operating for decades have closed their doors or announced their intention to do so. In many cases, this is due to the inability to afford the rent. Recent examples include the Santa Clara bakery and the Camps hardware store, both in the Gràcia neighborhood. Previously, other businesses had suffered the same fate, such as the Italian restaurant Luigi—a long-established fixture in Plaça Francesc Macià—and the hair salon on Carrer Muntaner where Raffel Pagès got his start. These are just a few of the more publicized cases of a phenomenon that is causing many other silent farewells.

In the case of the Santa Clara bakery, for example, the business closed after the landlord wanted to double the rent on the Travessera de Gràcia corner of Quevedo, from €1,500 to €3,000. They had been serving coffee and pastries to the neighborhood residents for eighty years. The case of Camps hardware store on Gran de Gràcia street is similar. Open for ninety years, it's now closing because it's no longer profitable. The drop in sales, coupled with the €15,000 monthly rent they'd been paying for the last three years, which the landlord now wants to raise again, has been the final blow for this nearly century-old business.

The news of these recent closures has reopened a recurring debate in the Catalan capital. Rent has long been at the heart of a complex situation for local businesses, a situation compounded by other factors such as changing consumer habits, the rise of platforms like Amazon, and a lack of generational succession. In October 2024, the Economy and Finance Committee approved a motion from Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) in which the City Council committed to urging the Catalan Government (Generalitat) and the Spanish State to implement, "as quickly as possible," effective regulations on the rental of premises used for economic activity. This led to the creation, a few days later, of a working group between the Barcelona City Council and the Catalan Government's Department of Business to analyze the challenges facing commerce and the rental of commercial premises. However, fourteen months later, no conclusions have been reached. When consulted by ARA, sources from the City Council and the Catalan Government explained that they maintain regular contact through meetings and working groups that analyze challenges in the sector, such as rentals, but also generational change, digitalization, quality employment, training, and professionalization.

Given the lack of concrete proposals, as ARA has learned, Esquerra will once again bring the debate to the City Council's Economic Committee. In a formal request, they will demand that the municipal government commit to analyzing and promoting, in collaboration with the Generalitat (Catalan government) and within the framework of its powers, legal avenues for regulating commercial rents in areas strained by tourism. They will also demand that, within six months, the city's high-demand commercial rental zones be identified and that a working group be established between the City Council and parliamentary groups to draft a law regulating commercial rents.

Doubts about the regulation

However, the path to such hypothetical regulation does not appear easy. Back in 2024, Raquel Gil, then the city councilor for Commerce and now the fifth deputy mayor, expressed her doubts about the possibility of regulating the rental of commercial premises because "the legal framework doesn't make it easy." These doubts are shared by the sector. In statements to ARA, the president of Barcelona Comerç, Pròsper Puig, admits concern that rental prices are making some businesses unviable, but emphasizes that "regulation is complicated" because "it involves entering the realm of supply and demand." "When there is economic activity, setting limits is very difficult," he explains, and stresses that it is a different debate from that of housing, which is indeed a social good. From Barcelona Oberta, its president, Gabriel Jené, is even more emphatic about the possibility of regulating the rental of establishments. "It's ideological madness," he says, and also distinguishes between the case of commerce and that of housing. Jené argues that this type of regulation is unfeasible because what's at stake here isn't someone's right to have a place to live versus someone who wants to make a profit from an apartment, but rather a debate about the economic benefits for the landlord and the business owner. "How do you decide who can make more profit and who can't?" he asks. Beyond rental regulation, the City Council indicates that it is working on compiling a census of economic activities on the ground floor. This registry, they say, should allow them to "update and improve" their understanding of street-level establishments with data such as the type of economic activity, the use of the premises, and its geographical location. Both the Catalan Government and the City Council also emphasize that they are working on the agenda of activities stemming from Barcelona's recent selection as European Capital of Local Commerce 2026.