Palma bans Airbnb-style home renting to tourists

Spanish city cracks down on apartment websites blamed by residents for driving up housing costs

PALMA in Majorca is to become the first Spanish city to completely prohibit apartment rentals to tourists, in a crackdown on sites such as Airbnb that many say are driving up rents for locals.

The mayor of the Balearic Islands capital said the ban, which will apply from July, was aimed at keeping Palma a “habitable city” and preventing residents being forced out by rising prices.

The move comes after a study found 20,000 unlicensed flat rentals in the city, a rise of 50 per cent between 2015 and 2017. Antoni Noguera, head of Palma’s Left-wing city council, said it was a “brave” decision that he hoped could start a trend, and be a “benchmark” for Spain and cities across Europe.

Rents have risen considerably in most Spanish cities in recent years, and many locals and politicians say apps and sites such as Airbnb are to blame for distorting the market, as those with property seek higher profits from tourists instead of renting to locals.

“Palma has to be a habitable city because the worst that can happen is that its inhabitants have to go because they can’t find affordable housing,” Mr Noguera said.

Local concern about the impact of mass tourism has grown in many parts of Spain, with leading destinations seeing increasing protests. In Barcelona and Majorca, hard-left activists have vandalised tour buses and rental bikes, and daubed graffiti telling tourists to “go home”.

In one incident in Barcelona last July, protesters mounted an assault on a tour bus near Camp Nou football stadium, during which passengers at first feared they were being attacked by terrorists. The activists, from the group Arran, slashed the bus’s tyres and spraypainted the slogan “Tourism kills neighbourhoods” on its windscreen.

Barcelona’s city council has also cracked down on Airbnb, fining the company £600,000 last year and sending out inspectors to track down illegal rentals.

Other cities such as Madrid and Valencia are looking at limiting the time home owners can rent out their properties to a maximum of 90 days per year. In Majorca, anti-tourism activists have pledged another summer of protests against the “saturated tourism” they say is damaging the island.

Critics have accused politicians of stirring “tourism phobia” with their pronouncements against sites such as Airbnb, but Antònia Martín, Palma’s health councillor, insisted that “the negative effects of tourism must be rationalised”. The rental ban, she said, was about “listening to the people”.

Ramón Estalella, secretary general of the Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodations, said he doubted the Palma ban would prompt nationwide action. “It would be our desire,” he said, but added that he did not believe there was the political will.