Spanish cities move to curb rent spikes for local shops and tourist apartments

In Palma, the environmentalist party MÉS per Palma has proposed capping commercial rents in the city’s most pressured neighbourhoods to protect small, traditional businesses. Party candidate David Pujol said many shops close not because of lack of customers but because “when the contract ends, the new rent is simply unaffordable.” The proposal calls for specific rent regulation similar to housing policy, aiming to preserve neighbourhood identity and prevent chain‑driven homogenisation.

In Barcelona, Mayor Jaume Collboni reiterated the city’s plan to eliminate more than 10,000 short‑term tourist‑apartment licences by November 2028, converting them into residential housing. The goal is to ease the housing shortage and counter the impacts of mass tourism. Resident‑association lobby groups are using legal loopholes, appeals and “vertical property” conversions to keep licences active beyond the deadline. Collboni warned that “Barcelona cannot afford such a high number of tourist apartments in a context where housing access is already difficult.”