Tourism | The opposition to Airbnb is growing – now there was a demonstration in Málaga

Thousands people demonstrated in Málaga, Spain, which is also popular with Finnish tourists, on Saturday against tourism and the increased rents and selling prices of apartments.

The reason is seen to be Airbnb and similar services, the popularity of which is causing more and more investment property owners to offer apartments for short-term rental to tourists instead of local residents.

At the same time, both rents and apartment prices have risen strongly in places popular with tourists.

El País magazine estimated that there were 15,000 demonstrators. According to the police, there were 5,500 of them, and according to the organizers, as many as 25,000. A similar demonstration also gathered a couple of thousand people in Cádiz.

In the past, there have been similar demonstrations in Barcelona, ​​Madrid and Seville, for example, and around the world from France to Canada.

in Málaga up to a quarter of renovated apartments go to airbnb use, El País says. In addition, of course, there is the traditional hotel offer. Last year, 1.6 million tourists visited the city.

In part, the trend has led to the fact that Málaga apartment prices and rents have approximately doubled in less than a decade.

For tourists Airbnb, the market leader in short-term rental apartments, has received criticism in several cities from Paris to New York, for example WorldCrunch.

New York has curbed the growth of the industry by demanding since September that the entire apartment cannot be rented for less than 30 days and by making other restrictions. Apartment prices and rents they don’t however, have not started the calculation.

Similar restrictions are planned in other cities as well. Barcelona plans to reduce the number of permits by 10,000 by 2028 to return the apartments to long-term residents.

of the mayor of Barcelona by Jaume Collbon rents have risen in the city by 70 percent and sales prices by 40 percent over the past decade.

The Finnish government has also planned law, which would give municipalities the right to prohibit the short-term rental of investment apartments. The possibility of a ban would not apply to apartments where the renter is registered himself.

The new ones the restrictions have so far not stifled the growth of Airbnb, which was founded in San Francisco in 2008.

During the pandemic, the company sometimes had to lay off a quarter of its workforce, but 2022 was a profitable year and in 2023 its sales were double compared to the year before the pandemic in 2019.

Long-term Airbnb rentals had also grown by a fifth during the first quarter of this year.

in Málaga and in Barcelona it has been reminded that tourism is also one of the most important livelihoods of cities.

The decision-makers must therefore continue to strike a balance when looking for ways that do not deplete the cash flows brought by tourism and do not force permanent residents to move elsewhere due to high rents and housing prices.