Change in Barcelona tourist apartment licensing

Barcelona real estate Blog

Monday, 06 June 2011 10:28

Regulation of tourist apartments in Barcelona has changed back to the procedure from six years ago. Now, the apartments no longer need to be registered as tourist apartments, instead they will be declared as "apartment with economic activity". This means that any apartment that is rented out to tourists no longer needs to obtain a licence from the town hall, and only needs to notify the authorities of the activity. An inspection is still needed, but the responsibility now lies with the department for tourism instead of the local ayuntamiento.

From now on, tourist apartments will be given a star rating, similar to those used for hotels, and will need to make a 24 hour emergency telepone number available. In addition, criteria for minimum standards of cleaning will be put in place.

Marian Muro, director general of the department for tourism, says that there are enough controls in place for the tourist apartment market to function correctly, such as the power of veto for neighbours to remove problem apartments.

This is good news for apartment agencies and owners, as the previous controls were very restrictive, limiting the number of tourist apartments licences available in the center of Barcelona, making it more or less impossible to legally operate a tourist apartment in the old city of Barcelona. Now, the process is much simplified and there are fewer restrictions, making it much easier to invest in a tourist apartment in Barcelona.