Frustrated residents say they are being pushed out of their homes by skyrocketing rents, largely driven by short-term rentals (STRs), which leave their neighbourhoods like “ghost towns” for most of the year. For many travellers, STR websites like Airbnb and Booking.com have revolutionised the way holidays are planned and enjoyed. Apartments and houses once occupied by locals are now being advertised to tourists, promising affordable stays and the chance to live like a local – something that traditional hotels and luxury villas cannot provide. The growth of these platforms has helped tourism spread deeper into residential neighbourhoods, reshaping many major holiday destinations in the process.

However, while holidaymakers benefit from this enterprise, the rapid rise of STRs has come at a cost to year-round residents. Locals are grappling with housing shortages, rising costs and the slow erosion of their neighbourhoods as they are forced to move away to find cheaper lettings. Tourism was intended to generate revenue for local economies and support the communities that host it. However, questions are now being raised about who the industry is truly serving.

The crisis is particularly acute in Spain, the world’s second-most popular tourist destination behind France. Spain has seen a significant boom in its STR market, particularly since COVID-19 and the reopening of borders.

“In La Barceloneta, Ciutat Vella, residential buildings used to house hospitality workers. Now they’re almost exclusively rental apartments listed for tourists,” Steven Vigor, CEO of Revigorate, told the Express. “Consequently, tourism operators struggle to hire locally. Staff can no longer afford to live near their jobs and are pushed into long commutes.

“Eventually, people stop relocating to cope and simply move, leaving Barcelona without the workforce it relies on.”

The same problem is occurring in the Balearic Islands. The grassroots social organisation, Sindicat d’Habitatge de Palma, is fighting against property speculation and defending the right to housing for locals in Majorca.

“The housing situation in Majorca has definitely got worse since we launched three years ago,” Miquel Duran, a spokesperson for the platform, told us. “Now we’re getting more and more people struggling who have a stable income. The situation is so bad that even these people are finding themselves on the street; they have no alternative.

“Today, 70% of people’s income is going into having a roof over their heads, and then they’re left with €300 [£261] to feed their kids.”

Mr Duran added that STRs have “opened the door” for the housing crisis. He explained that while the properties are packed during the peak tourist season, outside of this period, “you have whole towns that are like deserts in the winter”. “It’s a ghost town for nine months of the year,” he added.

Mr Duran’s organisation had seen evidence of property owners converting their long-term rentals (LTRs): “They have to find excuses to finish a contract and dedicate it to an STR. You find many cases where owners try to force people out,” he claimed.

Meanwhile, Júlia Isern, a spokesperson for Menys Turisme, Més Vida – a pro-resident movement which has called for a ban on STRs – told the Express: “I have friends who have been forced to live on a different island, and every day they have to commute across just to go to work.

“You see the age [of people leaving] their parents’ house getting older and older, because we cannot afford to buy a house for ourselves,” she added.

The average daily rate for a typical Airbnb in Barcelona in 2025 was €168 (£146), according to Airbtics. Meanwhile, Numbeo reported that the average monthly rent for a local in a one-bedroom flat in Barcelona’s city centre is €1,366 (£1,185). With these figures, a landlord could earn the same amount generated in a month from a long-term resident in just eight days from a tourist.

At a price of €168 a day, by operating an STR, a landlord could earn €5,040 (£4,374) in 30 days – before tax and other expenses like cleaning fees – or 269% more.

In September 2025, the European Parliament analysed the impact of STRs on access to affordable housing in the EU. It concluded that in places with tight housing markets, STRs had “contributed to a decrease in the supply of long-term rentals; added to the existing rise in rental and sale prices; and fuelled the displacement of long-term residents,” especially in certain neighbourhoods and small tourist towns.

In those areas, “the high ratio of STRs relative to the total housing stock has put the existing socio-economic fabric under significant pressure,” it added.

With this in mind, when data on rental housing prices in many of Spain’s tourist hotspots is directly compared with the number of tourist homes – especially compared with regions that many foreigners have never heard of – the link is stark.

Residents in cities like Madrid and Barcelona are facing eye-watering rents and huge numbers of tourist homes. According to Idealista’s data, in December 2025, Madrid topped the charts at €20.80 (£18.10) per square metre per month, with 18,555 tourist homes according to the INE data from May 2025. Barcelona followed closely behind at €20.40 (£17.70) with 18,113 tourist homes. By contrast, quieter areas like Zamora in Castile and León and Aragon’s Teruel, with just 546 and 810 tourist homes respectively, saw monthly rents of €7.10 (£6.20) and €7.40 (£6.40) – a fraction of the cost in Spain’s major cities.

In fact, Teruel’s price was almost 50% lower than that of its neighbour, Valencia, where rental housing was €13.60 (£11.80), and there were nearly 14,500 more tourist homes.

While the rise in STRs in Spain has contributed to higher rental prices for local residents, it is important to note that other factors, such as inflation, the volume of vacant homes and a lack of new construction, also influence the housing market. According to INE data, STRs account for 1.4% of Spain’s total housing supply, while empty homes account for 14%, meaning vacant homes outnumber STRs by 10 to one.

In December 2024, the Spanish Government implemented a sweeping reform of its STR laws, under Royal Decree 1312/2024, in an effort to regain control.

“We need fewer Airbnbs and more housing,” said Housing Minister Isabel Rodríguez, who lent her support to bans in areas where the tourist industry puts the greatest pressure on housing.

Fully effective from July 1, 2025, the reform was designed to create a more transparent and controlled holiday rental sector. At its centre is the new Número de Registro Único de Arrendamientos (NRUA) system. Every property offered as an STR, even if just a room, must now be officially registered and issued a unique NRUA code. This code must be displayed in all forms of advertising and marketing, including listings on platforms such as Airbnb. Any listing that does not comply may be considered illegal and subject to hefty fines ranging from €600 (£521) to €60,000 (£52,132), or removal from platforms.

In September 2025, Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, promised to remove 53,000 tourist flats from STR platforms nationwide. These properties, identified as irregular or illegal, are now slated for conversion into permanent rental housing to address housing shortages.

On a local level, several Spanish cities have taken strong stances to protect their residents’ housing. In June 2024, the mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, announced plans to get rid of all STRs by the end of the decade. By November 2028, the city will cease issuing new licences for properties and will not renew existing permits, meaning that from 2029, no homes can be rented as tourist accommodation.

Airbnb urged Barcelona to reconsider its approach, and the dispute ultimately reached court. However, in a landmark decision in March 2025, Spain’s Constitutional Court upheld Barcelona’s plan, dismissing claims that the ban violates private property rights. The Spanish Government then issued the platform a €64 million (£56 million) fine in December for advertising unlicensed apartments.

The Express contacted Airbnb for comment, and a spokesperson said: “The root causes of housing and tourism challenges in Spain are a lack of new homes being built and decades of hotel-driven concentrated mass tourism, which accounts for the vast majority of visitors to Spain each year.

“More than 10 years of disproportionate blanket regulations, like the ones in Barcelona, have failed to improve housing concerns. In contrast, Airbnb is helping spread guests and benefits beyond traditional tourist hotspots.”

Airbnb stated that in Barcelona, over a decade after the full moratorium on new licenses for entire homes and a ban on private room rentals was introduced, STRs have been reduced by half, but rents have risen by almost 60% while the average price of a home has increased by 8%, citing Barcelona City Hall data.

“Hotels drive mass tourism and are much more concentrated in traditional tourist spots, while Airbnb accounts for only a small portion of the tourism load in Spain,” Airbnb added, before describing its platform as “an antidote to overtourism”.

Finally, Airbnb said it was working with local authorities and actively supporting compliance: “Only in 2025 Airbnb has signed voluntary agreements with the Island Councils of Ibiza, Mallorca, Menorca, and Formentera, as well as with the Government of the Canary Islands and the Region of Murcia. Since July 2025, Airbnb has been closely collaborating with the Ministry of Housing to implement the new national registration system.”

The Express also approached Booking.com for comment.