Graffiti seen in Barcelona, Catalonia

Get rid of air bnb and similar. It's caused a ton of problems in Japan as well with people buying whole buildings and pricing out existing tenants. There are legal protections, but most tenants, particularly elderly, don't know about them and either pay new increased prices by the new landlord or move out. The government enacted laws requiring a minpaku (think lodging/hotel) license and putting maxes on time, but tons of people still run illegal ones.

A lot of those people seem to be Chinese investors running them off of other sites which has furthered anger and xenophobia against all foreigners. One of the parties that skyrocketed in the most recent election wants to strip property rights from all foreigners and not just investment properties but ALL properties. It's a reaction to getting priced out and the government not doing shit about it. Granted, there are tons of other problems (prices rising weekly or monthly, wages not keeping up at all with inflation and rising prices, and overtourism more generally), but this is low-hanging fruit.

As someone who just bought a house last year (on the market for over a year in the countryside with farmland for which I had to interview and get permits to buy and use), and volunteers in his community, this is terrifying to me. I had to go through tons of extra hoops just for being a foreigner to begin with and now, thanks to fuckhead illegal hotel owners and bad policy, now lots of people want to take the one little bit of stability I finally felt.

thanks to fuckhead illegal hotel owners
Wrong fight, wrong enemies

An important population we need to increase is ethical landlords.

And by ethical, I mean former.

The only good landlord is a former landlord.
- I have a pretty good landlord. This isn't an ACAB situation. The problem is the market, IMO, if not capitalism entirely; even if you got rid of landlords (made it illegal to have tenants), housing prices would still be too high to buy a house. Supply-side or demand-side economics are the only viable solution under capitalism.

Aww that's so sweet. They really enjoyed their stay at the AirBnB.

/s

Funny how if you remove all landlords no one loses their home.

People who can no longer afford their mortgages would disagree with you.
Edit: I've absolutely no fucking idea why you all think I mean landlords here. You do realise normal people have mortgages right? And if you don't pay them, the bank take your house and make you homeless?
- Landlording isn't a real job. It provides no value to society.
  Landlords can change that by simply changing businesses.
- People who can no longer afford their mortgages because they suddenly can't leech of off working people can go fuck themselves.
- Ban landlord culture and property prices drop.
  Kinda sucks for those already with a mortgage. Defending rental culture because someone might lose out now only guarantees that an ever increasing majority lose out in the future.
- So? Then they shouldn't have gotten real estate to begin with if they can't afford a house. A person who relies on renting property to make a living are leaches living off the working class.
- I and many working people like me can't afford a mortgage EVER because all of the market is bought up for renting, so they would become just like me, except I'd have a real fucking job
- Why would mortgage prices go up without landlords?
- They should find a job
- Fuck landlords bitch.
- what mortgages? shelter must be a right. people shouldn't be allowed to own other people's homes. everyone should be provided with housing by paying taxes or being covered by social aid systems.
- “Concerns” like this is why the housing situation will never be fixed. Guess what? Fixing the housing crisis will always means stopping it from being a profitable investment.

I think it can be generally said that the US and their success stories are a force for the bad in the world.

All the high profile multi-billion dollar tech companies to arise in the last 15-20 years have been some form or other of using technology to skirt existing regulations and to move the risk and expense onto others.
PayPal, Uber, Airbnb, DoorDash, you name it, their "innovations" weren't any kind of innovation in technology, they were innovations in creative ways to make something 5% more convenient at the expense of making it 500% worse all round for everyone.

Build. More. Homes.

We used to have enough, and then in the late 70s, early 80s they decided that if they didn't build enough, then they could make housing scarce and therefore more valuable. A big long-con, 40 years in the making.

Housebuilders would make more profit per home. Homeowners would have more wealth (even if they can't access it). Inheritance taxes could take more of a bite. Landlords could charge more. Retirements could be funded entirely by buying 2-3 houses and renting them out, and then cash in later on the full value of those homes when they'd gone up by double the interest rates.

They don't have to be amazing homes. They don't need an acre of land to sit on. They don't need three bedrooms. Kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, living room. Affordable on a quarter of a single person's minimum wage income.

We already have enough homes, it's just that too many of them are owned by Black Rock and similar companies.
- I thought investment companies didn't own that many, but just enough to bump the price too high. Like they influenced the market. Now developers are building in the hopes they get bought by the investment guys.
you just have to make sure that the new houses aren t bought by landlords...
- You have to realise that landlords aren't the plague. They're the buboes. A symptom.
  If you can take your spare money (a concept from days gone by, I know), buy a house for X, rent it out for Y a month, then finally sell it in 20 years for Z, and be 99.99% guaranteed to make more money from it than you can from pretty much any other source, then why wouldn't you?
  Remove the incentive for that (homes that don't go up by more than the inflation rate), there will be no need for them to exist.
  But in any case, the size of the building projects required would likely be government level anyway, and they can be the "landlord" for anyone not wanting to buy. This was called council houses in the olden days, before Maggie Thatcher killed that.
- The landlords aren't doing anything wrong, if the market price is too high you have to increase supply it's that easy.

Your neighbor was your friend... Until they sold out. ..

From what I heard from my brother, he lives in Barcelona, they are banning bnbs and short term rentals. In order to combat this problem.

For more details: https://www.euronews.com/travel/2024/07/22/the-end-of-airbnb-in-barcelona-what-does-the-tourism-industry-have-to-say
I live here (!barcelona@piefed.social), the mayor who announced the decision made it so that it would applied after the end of his tenure (that will end in 2027, the decision is supposed to happen in 2028)
The other issue is that even besides tourism, Barcelona is a very attractive city for Spanish people due to the work opportunities, and there is definitely a lack of supply for the housing market. Getting back the Airbnb would help with the mass tourism (which is an issue of its own), but the housing crisis might still be there for a while.
- So it is the same as in the rest of Europe with a helping of mass tourism so similar to Amsterdam and Paris.
That's great for them. But I live in the capitalist nightmare that is the US. I'm one generation removed from being able to go back to Norway or Sweden. It's like being imprisoned in a hellscape at birth.

I know at least one city in France taking measures to severely limit Airbnb, because it's becoming a ghost town and people who actually work there can't find anywhere to live. The housing situation in the area is terrible.

Good for them. I already can't stand "professional" landlords that get into the business of shitting over places people need to live to maximise profit. Those who are taking over those spaces to turn them into fake hotels without the constraints are the lowest of that scum.

Air bnbs are a cancer. You should be ashamed of yourself if your buying property then renting it out. With what they charge they are able to pay tge mortgage in 3 nights

Source?

It really baffles me that it's legal to own a house

You mean like as opposed to a government assigned home?
- You can't really live without air, food and a home, it's a basic need, it should not be something you can horder like a dragon and deny the access to others
  It's very interesting this binary thinking in terms of good vs evil, private own vs government own, it's very hard to think outside bourgeoisie ideology?

Airbnb used to be great.. I could rent out a spare room and make a bit of cash. Then the developers, and the people who weren't responsible enough to be landlords had to make houses that were all AirBnb.

Why don't these places vet Airbnbs instead of straight banning it. Owner occupied dwellings should get a pass.

I remember when it was about renting your place for a few days when you were traveling

I get that people want to see regulations on landlords, etc, but naysayers here don’t seem to have considered that it might be easier to convince would-be tourists that a place isn’t a relaxing holiday destination than it is to get a majority of the right level of politicians to agree to draft complex legislation in opposition from monied and powerful capitalist interests. Targeting tourists is totally fair game and good strategy, that doesn’t rule out pursuing regulations as well.

If we start taking away homes from tourists will we have fewer tourists or more homeless tourists?
- What?

It never ceases to amaze me how people get get so brainwashed on xenophobia and hating tourists when its their government at fault.

Edit: Well looks like 18 lemmy users didn't read the news. Locals in barcelonia were literally harassing tourists with water-guns, instead of actually protesting against their government.

Its about the cost of living and lack of affordable housing when companies buy up or build new places just to rent them out on airbnb, that's why it says it used to be their home. Nothing to do with tourism or xenophobia.
- Looks like someone didn't read the news.

why would anarchism be a solution to this, surely it would make it worse?

Since no one is answering seriously, I will try. There is a distinct difference in anarchist philosophy between property and possession which I will try to explain with housing.
Property is something that is used to oppress people. Which is why anarchist philosophy aims to abolish all property. In this case, housing that is being used for Airbnbs takes a house from someone that could use it to create a home for themselves and their family and instead uses that land and building to make a profit .
Possession on the other hand would be someone using that land and building to make a home for themselves and their family, not to make a profit but to survive and exist.
Owning one home for yourself is not a property but a possession but owning multiple homes that you use to make a profit is property. So the anarchist solution to this is to give that Airbnb to someone who could make it into a permanent home, not a short term rental.
- This reminds me of the campsite rule but applied globally: “Leave the world a better place than you found it.”
  If your ethos is to own and manage as many housing units as possible, you're not going to improve them since, paradoxically, leaving the world a better place doesn't help grow your enterprise. On the other hand, if every housing unit is managed exclusively and only by a single local person who doesn't split their attention, then that person has a personal incentive to improve their home since they suffer the direct consequences of neglecting their possessions.
- And the corporations have spent so much time and money fighting the idea that now anarchists are now associated with terrorists amongst boomers at least.
- If property doesn't exist, you can't go on vacation though.
  When you leave your house, someone else can just come in and take it for himself.
  You couldn't even go for a walk. The moment you leave the house you stop "possessing" it.
Do you even know what anarchism is like at all?
- Zero government. No rules. Take it with force. Of course we're aware of what y'all think. You're the libertarians of the left.
- Pasting the first paragraph of the Wikipedia article here:
  Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or hierarchy, primarily targeting the state and capitalism. Anarchism advocates for the replacement of the state with stateless societies and voluntary free associations. A historically left-wing movement, anarchism is usually described as the libertarian wing of the socialist movement (libertarian socialism).
Tell me you know nothing of anarchy without saying you know nothing.
- I believe they specifically asked about anarchy? If they know little about it, what could they have posted that would have been better than what they did post?
  They're open to a lucky 10,000 moment; don't drop the ball!
They could live in a home, for staters. Squatting is the crime of living in somebody else's legal property, but under anarchy, an unused home is being put to use, arguably to do what is was designed for. We don't necessarily need total anarchy to push the idea that "sometimes the rules are worse than no rules at all".
Make a place undesirable to rent an Abnb in and people may stop renting.
progressive taxation of properties that are not a primary residence. Rachet up the taxation for each additional property. I think their should be a certain amount of relief for actually maintaining the building and renting to Section 8/affordable housing programs
actually enforce zoning. A short term rental is a hotel business and should require a commercial business license and respect the zoning associated with that type of license
I fucking hate 2010 venture capital companies like AirBnb and Uber. Flaunt the law in a sexy way, loss lead with the capital to build market share, then crank the price up.
It’s always bullshit behind a convenient app with great UI
- Aren't taxes and zoning non-existent under anarchy?
  If there is no state, there is no one to pay taxes to. And if there is no state, there is no one to make and enforce zoning laws.
- Man, if only there were some organisation that were powerful enough to enforce these rules against people who don't want to follow them.
Pardon the confusion. This is Lemmy, anarchism is a utopistic solution where everyone sings kumbaya and gets along, not an apocalyptic hellscape where the people with the most guns amass all power. Fortunately, there has never been a societal experiment to determine what anarchy really is, so no one has to be proven wrong.
- not an apocalyptic hellscape where the people with the most guns amass all power
  Hahaha yeah that's totally not what capitalism is at all, right guys? ...right?
- ah, makes sense. thanks
- Google "cnt-fai"

What I don't get is why the people of Barcelona want tourists out. That's such a dumb knee-jerk reaction imho. Tourism is not the problem. In fact it's a major revenue for the city. They could use it to build affordable housing for locals. The government could put a cap on rent and similar restrictions on whatever Airbnb arrangements. If it's not more profitable to give out one's property for short term rentals then the trend will fade. If someone can explain the current anti-tourism stance as opposed to a push for alternative measures I'd appreciate it.

The government could put a cap on rent and similar restrictions on whatever Airbnb arrangements.
Not easy. They tried but don't have the authority. I think they managed for home long term rentals but not as aggressive as before.
The revenue from tourism is limited to the city. Most rentals are owned by large foreign companies, so profit goes away. Clearly not enough to pay for extra housing (one airbnb house taxes can't pay for a full new house).
Also, they are pushing away people who lived there, as the neighborhoods are focusing on tourists more and more (again, foreign investment firms who don't spend back in the city).
I used to live 25 min walking to Sagrada Familia. 8 years ago there were usually no tourists or stores focused on tourists. Now it's a very common place for tourists to stay, and prices show it.
- Hello,
  Not sure if you're still in Barcelona, but there is !barcelona@piefed.social
I’m guessing all those things that could and should happen are not happening because of greed.

Spain is cracking down on this according to a local when I was there recently.

On Airbnb or the garfiti?
- Air bnb. Actually, I think street art is pretty encouraged. But not tagging like this.
- garfiti
  I choose to interpret this as referring specifically to Garfield Grafitti.
- Airbnb

I've never understood the appeal of AirBNBs, letting complete strangers stay at my house sounds like it'd be an absolute NIGHTMARE.

It's not people's houses anymore. It's all property investors.

This feels like misplaced anger, given that blackstone owns god knows how much of the real estate market ( and have recently been evicting tenants in order to sell, due to the city becoming 'less hospitable' ). But hopefully the new anti airbnb measures have some effect.

In Barcelona?
Not everything is solely an american issue, even (especially) when it comes to US companies.
- Doing some minimal research, it does appear as if they are trying to take over the world: https://archive.is/ZQBz3
  It's kind of what they do.. I wouldn't assume safety because of borders or local rules and regulations. Those don't stand up against billions of dollars and a determined evil company.
- Classic Lemmy where someone says "not every is American" in response to an issue that actually does apply to them
I don't think it's misplaced, but even if it's not the biggest piece in the puzzle(I honestly don't claim to know) it's still a valuable piece, one might even say it's as valuable as an edge of corner piece of the puzzzle

Ok, but I need a short term rental because of the circumstances on my life, this airbnb is my home in a way that prevents me from being homeless. I also tried searching for a home on roomies but I had less success. If this airbnb stayed your home instead of becoming my home then I'd have one fewer opportunity to find a place to call home and more likely to be homeless.

What is that even supposed to mean? You sold the home to someone else who rents it out?

Overtourism in Barcelona has meant the locals have been priced out (gentrified) out of their own city.
Assuming that you're asking in good faith - People are frequently evicted from longterm rented accomodation because the landlord can make more profit from AirBNB. This in turn reduces the pool of available housing and drives up rents.
They could have been renters in the first place.
Over in my parts we had a big problem of landlords jacking up rent to squeeze tenants out and list the property on Airbnb. I haven't followed those trends in a while though. I think the turnover/cleaning cycle cut into ROI and discouraged that trend a bit.
- completely unrelated to your comment but the post above this one was a few children roleplaying guillotine
  i know. unrelated to this topic, but its pretty neat
Literally just happened to my coworker and I'm in America...
Landlord sold the house to some scumbag Airbnb parasite who then kicked my coworker out. The whole town is turning into this because rich fucks want to come walk around for 3 months of the year... Then it turns into a ghost town because we've all been pushed out.
- The tourists and techbros wonder why the city isn't as fun or cool as it used to be. It's because those people had to leave. Tech bros and corporations created this shit.
The houses were being rented to locals who are now pushed out so the houses can be offered as much more expensive airbnbs.
Property owners realized they can do a long term rental for $2000/month, or short-term rentals for $2000/week. Obviously, they chose the more profitable one. So people who want to live in a place long term, perhaps fueling the local economy and community, get pushed out.
Then, the places that remain as long term rentals raise the prices because there's fewer of them competing (assuming they aren't already forming a cartel)
Personally I think the state should have a heavier hand in providing housing. It's too essential to let private forces squeeze it for profit.
Long term renter evicted in favor of short term Air BnB.
I want to live in your world where everyone owns their own home
- I'm renting. And if the owner sells the place, that's their right and prerogative to do so.

Renting out property is so evil, and Airbnb is like a double evil on top of that. Very powerful graffiti that makes a good clear message, well done to whoever did this.

Not sure if anyone who lives here hasn't seen it yet, but !barcelona@piefed.social is a thing.

Copy pasted from another comment, the mayor who announced the decision made it so that it would applied after the end of his tenure (that will end in 2027, the decision is supposed to happen in 2028)

The other issue is that even besides tourism, Barcelona is a very attractive city for Spanish people due to the work opportunities, and there is definitely a lack of supply for the housing market. Getting back the Airbnb would help with the mass tourism (which is an issue of its own), but the housing crisis might still be there for a while.

Shouldnt have sold your home to a parasite corporation then, doesnt sound very anarchist to me. Then gets angry and enshittifies their city with spraypaint, people from barca aren't the brightest bunch.

Are you lobotomised? Obviously the author doesn't own the house duh

Having no context whatsoever of the position the person making the graffiti was in: "If you don't kill people you're a loser"