Another Spanish city has announced a ban on Airbnb-style flats. Madrid’s city council has introduced new regulations to restrict where tourists can stay in the centre.
The new ‘Plan Reside’ has been drawn up to help preserve residential spaces for locals in central Madrid. It comes after Barcelona announced plans for a total ban on short-term rentals in the city by 2028.
Protests against mass tourism have been held across Spain in recent months, with some of the key concerns raised by demonstrators being overcrowding, housing shortages and high rental prices for residents.
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Under the new plan, short-term tourist apartments will no longer be allowed to operate within residential buildings. The restriction extends to any ground-floor units and bans commercial properties from converting into tourist rentals.
Mayor Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida said the new rules would ‘address the depopulation of the city centre, expand residential availability, regulate tourist accommodations, and enhance harmony between residents and visitors’.
According to the new guidelines, short-term rentals will only be allowed within buildings that are solely dedicated to tourist accommodation in the historic centre. Outside of the centre, tourist flats can operate as normal, provided they have a separate entrance to the one used by residents.
The change follows a significant rise in tourist rentals in the capital, with numbers doubling since 2017. Only a fraction of these are legally licensed. In the centre of Madrid, tourist rentals represent 42 per cent of all short-term accommodations.
The new rules are scheduled to come into effect in August 2025 following a public consultation.
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