Overview
- Hotel leader Jordi Clos asked the city to exclude entire buildings of tourist apartments from the phase-out, citing 46 buildings with 735 units and arguing they operate like hotels.
- Deputy mayor Jordi Valls rejected any carve-outs, pointed to Constitutional Court validation, and said returning 10,000 licensed tourist flats to housing in 2028 would equal five years of new construction.
- A municipal study says only 15% of properties with tourist flats host five or more units, largely concentrated in the Eixample, and the city argues hotel capacity can grow by about 4,000 places with a metropolitan focus.
- Local parties have agreed to lift Barcelona’s municipal tourist tax to €8 by 2028, with separate IEET increases to be debated in April that could bring total nightly charges to €10–15 per person.
- Nearby L’Hospitalet de Llobregat advanced a parallel plan to end tourist apartments by 2028, initially approving zoning changes that would phase out 522 registered units.