The municipal government of Badalona (Barcelonès Nord) today brings to the approval of the Plenary of the City Council the suspension for one year of the granting of licenses for tourist homes in the municipality of Badalona, ??after the approval of the new Decree Law 3/2023 of the Generalitat , which represents a new regulation of the regime for the implementation of housing for tourist use.
This Decree Law, 3/2023 of November 7, establishes Badalona as one of the municipalities where housing for tourist use would be subject to the prior urban planning license regime and, therefore, given the implementation of a new rate, it is considered appropriate to carry out this suspension in order to proceed with the study and analysis of new local regulations to review the municipal ordinance of 2015.
In this sense, the second deputy mayor and councilor of the Area of ??Economic Promotion and City, Work, Culture, Citizenship and Government of the Badalona City Council, Cristina Agüera, has assured that “this government has the clear objective of making Badalona a “A city that is attractive to tourists because we have many claims that position us touristically, that is why during this time we will work with all the actors involved to find the best scenario for our city.”
At the moment, in Badalona there are only 200 apartments with a tourist housing license because the 2015 municipal regulation is already quite restrictive. The third deputy mayor and councilor for Territory and Sustainability of the Badalona City Council, Daniel Gracia, has indicated that “we are working to have the tools that allow us to combine tourist activity with preventing the concentration or proliferation of housing for tourist use. in certain areas of the city to ensure good coexistence.”
This temporary suspension also has the objective of preventing Badalona from receiving an avalanche of requests for tourist apartments in a context in which nearby municipalities such as Santa Coloma de Gramenet have already agreed to the suspension of licenses, or the city of Barcelona itself, which has begun to apply much stricter regulations in the regulation of tourist homes.
For its part, the municipal group d’ERC has expressed its concern about the growing proliferation of tourist accommodation offers on digital platforms such as Airbnb, which are outside the municipal regulatory framework. To address this issue, its spokesperson, Àlex Montornès, proposes that the government allocate a part of the increase in the City Council’s staff to tasks of inspection, regularization, where appropriate, and sanctioning those homes that are irregular. “Currently, on Airbnb, there is an offer of 371 tourist accommodations in our city, with prices ranging between 30 and 400 euros per night. In addition, a considerable part of these apartments are located in areas protected by municipal ordinance.”