Housing crisis in Europe. Mayor Jaume Collboni, cities across Europe are facing a deepening housing crisis marked by rising rents, limited affordable supply and growing social inequalities. In this context, how can initiatives such as the Mayors for Housing alliance concretely influence national and European housing policies? And more broadly, how can alliances among mayors strengthen cities’ capacity to respond to the housing emergency, both in terms of regulatory power and access to financial instruments?

Mayors for Housing has proven to be a transformational tool to advocate for greater EU involvement on housing. Nowadays, the housing crisis is the first source of social inequality across Europe, and in big cities. Just as Europe faces a geopolitical threat outside of its borders, it faces an equally concerning threat inwards: the lack of democratic legitimacy stemming from its incapacity to solve the housing crisis.

Therefore, the main challenge for us, Mayors, is to guarantee the right to stay in our cities to our citizens. We need a strong, unified voice of cities, regardless of our geographical circumstances or our political ideologies, that advocated for greater EU action on housing. We have been successful in ensuring that the European Commission took decisive action, with the publication of the European Affordable Housing Plan. Now, we need to ensure that the future legislative initiatives meet our needs: direct funding to cities, further regulatory tools and greater decision-making capacity.

You recently stated that the goal of your housing policies is to achieve a public housing stock of 15% in Barcelona, which would have a greater impact on the market. What specific measures are you promoting to achieve this goal in Barcelona where the public housing is still very low? This is a widespread problem affecting all major European cities, which must be addressed forcefully at national and European level. As an alliance of Mayors for housing, how do you intend to secure substantial funding for public housing both to maintain and implement them ensuring affordable and high-quality solutions devoted to larger groups of urban inhabitants? What are the Mayors’ alliance's priorities with regard to the European Plan, and how do you intend to pursue them, taking into account the needs of main cities, as well as those of medium-sized and small municipalities?

Barcelona has nowadays around 13,000 public dwellings. Our main objective is to expand the publicly-owned housing stock to 15,000 dwellings in 2027 and to represent the 15% of the overall stock by 2050. We believe that the most secure and sustainable way to ensure that prices remain stable is to publicly own a relevant share of the overall stock. However, we need to ensure the stability of prices in the meantime. This is why we have adopted two key decisions from a regulatory perspective: a rent cap and the decision to prohibit all short-term rentals by 2028. Our main priority is the European Affordable Housing Plan goes in line with the measures already implemented at local level and that it reinforces our capacity to deliver results to our citizens.

Could you please explain how this rent control mechanism works at the municipal ground and how you plan to implement it in the coming years? Do you think this Spanish policy could be an interesting measure to promote within the European Plan for Affordable Housing for other cities affected by the same housing crisis?

The rent control mechanism is working well in Barcelona. Since its application as of March 2024, it has reduced rents by 3,3%, while the contracts have continued to grow, with 1300 new contracts since then. We believe it is a chirurgical, temporary measure until Barcelona ceases to be an area under housing stress.

The European Affordable Housing Plan is a promising first step towards greater EU action on housing. Our general goal in any future legislation is to guarantee local autonomy for cities to adopt the decisions they deem most appropriate to tackle the housing crisis adapted to their own specificities. In other words, we believe that there is no one-size-fits-all solution, but that, on the contrary, the EU must encourage cities to take their own route towards a common goal: solving the EU housing crisis.

Mayor Collboni, you actively want to limit STRs, continuing the courageous policies undertaken by the previous administration. Can you explain how this initiative will be implemented in practice and when you think it will have the desired effect? How will this new regulation interact with the previous Plan for Tourist Accommodation? How can you ensure that homes, whose licenses are not renewed, become housing for families and are not absorbed by the most profitable sector of medium-term rentals for digital nomads and global professionals, as has happened in cities where the focus has been on restricting STRs without addressing their conversion?

Our decision is very simple: there will not be any short-term let in Barcelona as of November 2028. This will cement our vision of guaranteeing the right to stay of Barcelonians in Barcelona. It is a very strong decision comes from the assumption that, in the current housing crisis, dwellings have to be for people to live, not to make profit out of them. This decision will mean that, in November 2028, 10,000 flats will go back to their residential use. 10,000 flats entails 10 years of construction of public housing and have the capacity to host up to 25,000 citizens.

Moreover, this decision comes on top of other measures that we have undertaken to prevent and mitigate housing speculation, such as the rent cap for both long-term and short-term rentals. Additionally, we will soon launch a plan to ease the transition from touristic STRs to long-term rents for owners, so that everyone feels comfortable in this process.

Barcelona serves as a key example of southern European cities experiencing a tourism-driven financialization of housing. Like many cities in the region, local residents face incomes that remain below the European average, in part because the tourism sector is characterized by instability and informality in jobs. As a result, residents struggle to compete with tourists and temporary visitors who typically have more financial resources. This situation prompts important discussions about the wisdom of policies that encourage tourism, particularly in places such as Barcelona, Rome, and Paris, which are challenged by overtourism. Addressing these issues requires a multifaceted approach, including diversifying urban economies and, in many cases, curbing the expansion of tourist nfrastructure to allow other sectors to thrive. Such measures are also essential steps toward alleviating the housing crisis. Which policies are you advancing to tackle such a challenge? While the expansion of Barcelona’s airport has been partially reconsidered, hotel capacity seems continuing to grow. What is the comprehensive urban strategy for the Catalan capital beyond the strict regulations imposed on STRs?

Barcelona has recently decided to modify our touristic model: we have transitioned from a promotion-based model to a management-based one. This means that we are not actively seeking to welcome more tourists in the city as we believe that we have reached a ceiling. Our focus nowadays is to manage those that visit us in the best way possible, and, particularly, ensuring a peaceful and comfortable coexistence with our local communities. This is why, for instance, we have announced a reduction in the number of terminals for cruises, or why we have doubled the touristic tax. On the latter, we are using the revenues from the tax to climatise all public schools in the city.

At the same time, Barcelona has an undeniable global attraction, a key component to grant economic and social prosperity to the city in the long term. Barcelona is a city open for business and for investment, as long as it has a return that benefits our local communities. This is why we defend that the Barcelona airport needs to be a global hub to connect us with strategic, added-value locations, such as Asia or the United States. Our focus is not the short range mostly operated by low costs, but the long haul airlines that connect our city with locations that are strategic to our growth.

The 30% social housing quota, introduced by the previous administration in the context of property renovations, has received significant attention in recent months. This regulation was a first step towards expanding the social housing supply—which remains insufficient in Barcelona, as in many other major European southern cities—but also as an anti-gentrification measure. By requiring that 30% of renovated housing units be designated as affordable, the policy aims to counteract the soaring housing prices and loss of affordability that often accompany urban renewal. Initially, your administration proposed amendments but ultimately decided to maintain the original quota. Could you give to Italian cities more details about this 30% quota? How is it implemented in practice and what aspects of the current model do you feel are not functioning as intended, and what alternatives or improvements are you considering for enhancing its effectiveness

One of our main dogmas in our policymaking is that all public policy needs to be measured and evaluated. The 30% quota is a mechanism to generate affordable housing in urban areas where it is already constructed. Another one is the right of redemption that we as the public administration have throughout the city.

However, the 30% quote has not worked well in Barcelona. Since its approval in 2018, it planned to generate 3,000 dwellings for affordable use, but it has generated only 31. Our plan has been to modify it, in talks with all stakeholders, to ensure we set it for success. Given the current majorities in the City Hall, we are yet to achieve our objective, but we will continue to insist on it.