Barcelona Ends Its Tourist Flats in 2028. Here's Where They Are

The short version

• Barcelona won't renew any tourist-flat licence when they expire in November 2028. Spain's Constitutional Court upheld the Catalan law behind it in March 2025.
• The city's register lists 10,712 licensed tourist flats. That's 1.3% of the city's homes, and about a third of the rental contracts signed in a year.
• Ten barris hold two-thirds of them. La Dreta de l'Eixample has 1,786, more than the 1,291 rental contracts signed there in a year.
• Nou Barris and Sant Andreu have 135 between them. Eight barris have none.
• Barris with more tourist flats are dearer per m². Since 2019, though, their rents haven't risen any faster than the rest.

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In June 2024, Barcelona's mayor, Jaume Collboni, said the city would not renew any tourist-flat licence when they expire in November 2028. The Catalan decree that makes this possible went to Spain's Constitutional Court, which upheld it in March 2025.

If you rent, the question is what that does for you. I can't tell you what it will do to rents. I can tell you where those flats are, and how many there are next to the number of flats that get rented each year.

Three sources: the Ajuntament's open-data register of licensed tourist flats (habitatges d'ús turístic), the cadastre for the number of homes, and INCASÒL for rental contracts from April 2025 to March 2026. The register lists 10,712 licences. The figure usually quoted, from when the plan was announced, is about 10,000.

Where the tourist flats are

Barri	District	Tourist flats	Share of homes	Rental contracts in a year	Tourist flats per 100 contracts
la Dreta de l'Eixample	Eixample	1,786	6.5%	1,291	138
la Sagrada Família	Eixample	824	3.0%	1,076	77
la Vila de Gràcia	Gràcia	804	2.5%	1,636	49
l'Antiga Esquerra de l'Eixample	Eixample	726	3.0%	1,271	57
Sant Antoni	Eixample	669	3.3%	772	87
el Poble Sec	Sants-Montjuïc	573	3.0%	806	71
la Nova Esquerra de l'Eixample	Eixample	510	1.7%	1,304	39
el Poblenou	Sant Martí	459	2.6%	632	73
el Fort Pienc	Eixample	381	2.4%	699	55
Sant Gervasi - Galvany	Sarrià-Sant Gervasi	313	1.2%	1,292	24

These ten hold 7,045 of the 10,712. Six of them are in the Eixample.

By district, the gap is even plainer:

District	Tourist flats	Share of homes	Tourist flats per 100 contracts
Eixample	4,896	3.4%	76
Sants-Montjuïc	1,301	1.4%	37
Sant Martí	1,232	1.1%	34
Gràcia	1,128	1.6%	37
Ciutat Vella	842	1.5%	29
Sarrià-Sant Gervasi	662	0.8%	18
Les Corts	264	0.6%	17
Horta-Guinardó	252	0.3%	9
Sant Andreu	94	0.1%	4
Nou Barris	41	0.1%	2

Ciutat Vella, the district most people picture when they think of tourists, has fewer licensed flats than Gràcia.

About four months of rentals

Across the city, 10,712 tourist flats is about four months' worth of new rental contracts. If every one of them came onto the long-term market at once, that's what it would add.

Where you live changes the picture completely. Nou Barris has 41 tourist flats against about 1,780 rental contracts a year. In la Dreta de l'Eixample, the tourist flats add up to more than a full year of new rentals.

Not all of them will become rentals

An owner whose licence ends can rent the flat long-term, but they can also sell it, move in, leave it empty, or rent it by the season. Since January 2026 seasonal lets fall under the rent cap too, so that route is less attractive than it was (how landlords used it).

The register also counts licences, not flats in use. Some licensed flats may already be empty, or let to long-term tenants.

What it could do to rents

I don't know, and the data can't say yet. Here's what it shows today.

Barris with more tourist flats are dearer. The ten with the highest share of tourist flats have a median of €16.93 per m², against €15.82 for the rest. But they haven't got dearer faster. Since 2019, rent per m² rose a median 19.2% in those ten and 19.5% everywhere else.

That doesn't prove tourist flats have no effect on rents. It means any effect doesn't show up in how fast rents rose, barri by barri. For the rent cap, which did move the numbers, see two years on.

What these numbers can't tell you

• Unlicensed flats. The register only lists legal ones.
• What owners will do. Each one decides for themselves, and some will decide close to the deadline.
• Whether the plan holds. The law could still change before 2028.

If you rent in the Eixample, Poble Sec, Poblenou or the Vila de Gràcia, 2028 could add real supply where you live. In Nou Barris, Sant Andreu and most of Horta-Guinardó it will hardly show. Every barri's page shows its tourist flats next to its rent, starting with la Dreta de l'Eixample. To check your own rent against your barri, use the rent calculator.