Spain orders Airbnb to take down 65,000 holiday homes in row over house prices

Residents of Alicante have taken to the streets to protest under the slogan 'Alicante is not for sale. Let's put a limit on mass tourism'. Photo / Getty Images

More than 65,000 Airbnb listings in Spain are to be shut down amid a row over runaway house prices in the country.

The left-wing Spanish Government has come under increasing pressure to tame a surge in house prices and rents, which have doubled in less than a decade in some tourism hotspots.

Airbnb listings have been partly blamed for swallowing up the housing stock in cities such as Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia.

Mass protests over excessive tourism across Spain over the past two years have restarted before this summer.

Airbnb has now been ordered by Consumer Affairs Minister Pablo Bustinduy to block thousands of listings on the grounds that they breach accommodation regulations.

Many of the holiday rentals do not include a licence number or specify whether the owner was an individual or a company, the consumer rights ministry said.

Bustinduy said the properties had “violated various norms regarding housing for tourist use”.

“No more excuses. Enough with protecting those who make a business out of the right to housing in our country,” he told reporters on Monday.

Airbnb has announced it will appeal the decision, stressing that “no evidence of rule-breaking by hosts has been put forward” by the Government.

According to official data, there are 321,000 homes with holiday rental licences in Spain – 15% more than in 2020.

It is the world’s second most popular tourist destination, attracting 94 million overseas visitors last year. The tourism sector accounts for 12% of the country’s GDP.

Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez previously said, “there are too many Airbnbs and not enough homes”, while Barcelona’s mayor has pledged a total ban on tourism rentals by 2028.

In January, Sánchez blamed foreign buyers for Spain’s housing crisis and threatened to increase sales tax on home purchases for non-EU citizens by up to 100%.

While current British residents in Spain would be unaffected by the proposals, new buyers relocating for a life in the Mediterranean sun could soon face double taxation.

It is one of a series of measures launched to tackle the country’s housing crisis. Seville’s city hall, for example, ruled that water can be cut off to a property that is unlicensed after rent prices surged in the Andalusian capital.

Anti-tourism protests are deterring British holidaymakers from going to Spain, according to Steve Heapy, the chief executive of Jet2.

He said there was a perception among some people that overseas visitors were not welcome in the country.

While current British residents in Spain would be unaffected by the proposals, new buyers relocating for a life in the Mediterranean sun could soon face double taxation.

It is one of a series of measures launched to tackle the country’s housing crisis. Seville’s city hall, for example, ruled that water can be cut off to a property that is unlicensed after rent prices surged in the Andalusian capital.

Anti-tourism protests are deterring British holidaymakers from going to Spain, says Steve Heapy, the chief executive of Jet2.

He said there was a perception among some people that overseas visitors were not welcome in the country.