Tourist flats have become a convenient villain in Spain’s housing debate, according to economist Gonzalo Bernardos.
Speaking at a recent roundtable at the Circulo Ecuestre in Barcelona, Bernardos argued that public discussion around short-term tourist rentals has been built on a false premise, insisting that the numbers simply don’t support the narrative.
The expert pointed to Barcelona as an example, where tourist apartments account for around 1.18% of the total housing stock.
‘Eliminating housing for tourist use is not going to lower rents,’ Bernardos said, dismissing the idea that removing such a small share of homes could meaningfully ease pressure on rents.
‘To think that by eliminating that 1% you are going to solve access to housing makes no sense.’
It comes after the city announced last year that it would be eliminating all tourist flat rentals by 2028.
Nationwide, Bernardos said tourist rentals represent 1.43% of homes, most of them concentrated in coastal areas rather than major cities.
While Spain’s six largest cities are home to 16.8% of the population, they contain just 12.6% of tourist rentals – figures he says undermine claims that short-term lets are ‘invading’ urban housing markets.
Bernardos insisted that the lack of homes being built is the true culprit.
‘Access to housing is a problem of lack of supply,’ he said, arguing that no amount of regulation can compensate for not building enough homes.
He was also sharply critical of policies that, in his view, deter investment.
‘When the message is sent that investing in housing is a risk, the investment disappears,’ he warned, and when it does, prices inevitably rise.
He also pushed back against what he described as an ideological backlash against tourism itself.
‘Here there is a crusade against tourism,’ he said, noting that tourism still contributes 12.6% of Spain’s GDP, broadly unchanged since 2019.
‘There has not been uncontrolled growth,’ he added, cautioning that portraying tourism as the root of urban problems risks ‘killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.’
In his view, the focus on tourist rentals has become a distraction.
‘They’re not the problem… the problem is that we’re not building enough housing,’ he concluded.
