How tourist lets in Spain are pushing locals out of city outskirts

Despite the increasing amount of regulations aimed at controlling short-term lets in Spain, tourist rentals remain so profitable for many families and businesses that the phenomenon seems unstoppable.

Just over 1.5 percent of properties in Spain are now tourist lets, but these are just the official numbers that don't factor in the unlicenced properties.

Unsurprisingly, Airbnb-style lets are no longer limited to Spanish city centres and there are plenty on the outskirts too.

Neighbourhood associations are reporting that this trend is driving residents not only out of the zonas centro (city centres), but out of the outer lying barrios (neighbourhoods) too.

As tourist apartments located further out come with lower prices, they're proving popular among cost-cutting holidaymakers.

In Madrid, locals are demanding that new restrictions on tourist apartments be extended to the entire city and not just the central areas.

Those particularly affected by the increase in tourist apartments are those in Tetuán, Puerta del Ángel, San Lorenzo and Puente de Vallecas, traditionally working-class neighbourhoods of the Spanish capital.

The mayor's new Plan Reside has been dubbed Plan Expulsa (Expulsion Plan) or Plan Especula (Speculate Plan) as a result. The opposition Socialists have criticised that within the last few months investment firms have bought more than 30 buildings in Puerta del Ángel to be turned entirely into tourist apartments.

READ ALSO: How Madrid plans to split city in two to regulate holiday lets

In the neighbourhood of Sant Antoni on the outskirts of Valencia, many new tourist apartments are being created and the council estimates that they could increase the population of the area by five percent. According to Ximo Muñoz, a member of the neighbourhood association, it will be very difficult for the area to be able to sustain such growth.

And the problems are being witnessed not just in the outskirts of Valencia but also in nearby towns such as Manises and Quart de Poblet, where prices have increased by 42 percent compared to two years ago, or in Burjassot and Mislata, where housing is now 45 percent more expensive.

A similar situation is being seen in Málaga, where neighbourhoods away from the centre are now the scene of stag and hen-dos, the constant rumbling of suitcase wheels and parties until the early hours of the morning.

According to data from Málaga city hall, 37,000 malagueños (locals from Málaga) have been forced to leave the southern city over the past five years, due primarily to unaffordable housing.

All these examples show how residents of Spanish cities who opted to live in the outskirts as a way of paying less are being pushed further out still as gentrification expands.

Demand for long-term rentals and properties for sale in these barrios far outweighs supply, and tourists lets, including unlicenced ones, are playing a pivotal role in this.

Spain's Ministry of Consumer Affairs recently ordered Airbnb take down 65,935 illegal tourist let ads from its website.

In 2024, a report from Madrid Town Hall showed that there were more than 15,200 illegal tourist rentals in the city, one of the greatest concentration of them in the country.

In the Andalusian province of Málaga there are 43,366 illegal tourist homes, according to data from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, which represents more than half of 85,000 apartments illegally advertised as tourist accommodation in Andalusia.

And in Valencia, the local government believes that of the 12,000 tourist apartments in the city, the vast majority of them are illegal.

To try and curb the problem in Barcelona, the city’s mayor even said he would aim to ban all tourist rental flats by 2028.