Pointed analysis of speculation hits the streets in Barcelona

Walking through the Eixample in the centre of Barcelona one encounters an interesting exercise in bottom-up critique of urban speculation and touristification. A series of posters erected at the bottom of Passeig Sant Joan by the Associació de Veïns i Veïnes de la Dreta de Eixample -  (Residents Association of the Right of the Eixample) provides a stark example of the effects of speculation and tourist pressure in the centre of Barcelona.

Density of tourist beds in the Eixample District in the centre of Barcelona (Photo Greg Richards)

One of the most impactful images is a map of the centre of Barcelona showing the density of tourist beds in apartments in the Eixample (Right and Left). This shows almost the whole of the area around Passeig de Gracia coloured red, or between 1321 and 4038 tourist beds within a 200-metre radius. The arrival of tourists is matched by a dramatic fall in the number of residents: from 71,500 in 1970 to 44,000 in 2024. The residents now occupy 57% of the properties in the District, and tourists have the remaining 43%.

Interested passersby are watched by a homeless man - a not disinterested party in this story (photo Greg Richards)

A simplistic reading would suggest that the tourists are to blame. But the analysis of the Association is more nuanced.  Alongside the growth of tourism, they also point to the growth of property speculation, which is generating enormous profits by transforming residential properties, offices and shops into luxury developments.

The consequences of speculation (AVVDE)

The government of Catalunya has announced it will invest 1,100 million euros per year for 4 years for the construction of 50,000 homes – a significant change compared with an almost total lack of housing investment in recent years. However, as the AVVDE report points out, this represents just 0.37% of Catalunya’s GDP. It will also do little to return housing investment to levels seen before the financial crisis in 2007, when construction began on over 7,000 protected dwellings in Barcelona. In 2024 the number was just over 2,500 – around a third of the level of almost 20 years ago. The investment in social housing is also being outstripped by investment in luxury dwellings in the centre of Barcelona. For example, Sotherby’s is offering luxury apartments in the centre of Barcelona for between €620,000 (100m²) and €3.1 million (222m²). These developments are often accompanied by tactics such as “Mobbing” and “House Flipping”, which usually mean replacement of the original residents with those who can pay vastly inflated rents. These are also out of the reach of most tourists. They are most likely snapped up by international jet-setters and investors – who probably spend little time actually living there.

The consequences according to the AVVDE include:

·       Gentrification or the expulsion of long-term residents

·       Degradation of economic activity

·       Breakdown of social cohesion

This all points to a toxic mix of speculation, mobbing, gentrification and a lack of housing regulation and investment on the part of the public sector. We are already seeing that these trends are likely to intensify in future. There are now moves to transform tourist accommodation into luxury accommodation – replacing an already profitable form of exploitation with an even more intense model. This underlines the fact that tourism is just one part of the problem in an increasingly broken system.