Crisis in Spain as Airbnb crackdown leaves local widow, 80, facing fines or eviction | World | News

Dozens of residents in Catalonia’s capital face an impossible dilemma as a result of the city’s strict Airbnb ban; many risked losing their homes or facing large fines. Residents in Barcelona, ​​Spain’s most expensive city to rent, have claimed they are being treated the same as commercial landlords who share their main homes with students or short-term tenants.

Under rules implemented by the administration of socialist mayor Jaume Collboni, anyone renting a room for less than 31 days is considered a tourist business and must get permission from the city council. But residents claim there is no such power for people who share their own homes to raise the money needed to continue living there. In recent months, Airbnb began removing hundreds of listings at the request of Barcelona City Council, giving residents 10 days to delete ads or face eye-watering fines of €100,000 (£87,700). However, there is no legal permit system that they must comply with.

This flaw means that local people who depend on small, short-term rentals to pay their rent or mortgage are stuck in an impossible situation where they are banned from operating but given no means to comply with the law. Those affected include retirees, single parents and low-income workers.

Earlier this year, the story of 80-year-old widow María Teresa, who received a pension of €840 (£737) but paid rent of €1,200 (£1,052), came to light. To make ends meet, he rents two rooms to students. He said he couldn’t stay in his home without this income.

Her story has become emblematic of what the residents’ group Veïns i Amfitrions de Barcelona (ViA) calls the “criminalization of survival”: “At ViA, we are all María Teresa,” the association said in a statement. “We are not investors or speculators. We are neighbors who share our homes so we can live in our own city.”

The group has lodged a formal objection to Spain’s new Real Decreto on short-term rentals, which creates a national digital registry for landlords. In its legal filing, ViA accused the government of violating the Spanish Constitution by imposing disproportionate restrictions on citizens’ property rights and privacy.

It also highlighted occasional guidance from the European Commission stating that “home sharing” should not be considered a professional rental business. Via claimed that the Barcelona City Council created this legal uncertainty by continuing to fine residents who did not have a license that did not exist, while refusing for years to pass a bylaw regulating shareholdings.

The organization also noted that Barcelona has become one of the few European cities where residents are completely prohibited from legally renting a room in their main residence.

Barcelona council insisted its crackdown was designed to protect housing stock and combat tourism-fueled inflation. But critics warned that it alienated vulnerable residents from the neighborhoods the policies claimed to protect.

“If Barcelona truly wants to protect its citizens, it must start by allowing them to stay in their own homes,” ViA said.