Barcelona after 2028: a guide for owners of tourist apartments

If you own a tourist apartment in Barcelona, the date that matters is 9 November 2028. That day the transitional period of Decree-law 3/2023 ends and, as the City Council has announced, no tourist-use licence (HUT) in the city will be renewed.

This guide explains what that means exactly, which options you have under the law as it stands today, and what is settled versus still being decided. It is written for owners. If you are a guest planning a long stay, this other article explains what changes for you.

What happens to tourist apartment licences in Barcelona in 2028?

On 9 November 2028 Barcelona’s HUT licences cease to have effect, and from that day the apartment cannot be let for tourist stays, meaning stays of up to 31 nights.

The reason is Decree-law 3/2023, in force since 9 November 2023. In 262 Catalan municipalities with housing-access problems, Barcelona among them, tourist use of a dwelling requires a municipal planning licence, valid for five years and renewable, with a ceiling of ten tourist dwellings per hundred inhabitants. Apartments that already held a licence have five years to obtain the new one or cease the activity.

In June 2024 Barcelona City Council announced that it will neither grant nor renew any licence: the city’s roughly ten thousand licences expire in November 2028. The Constitutional Court dismissed the challenge to the decree in judgment 64/2025 of 13 March: the decree does not infringe the right to property.

Until that date, your licence is fully valid. You can operate normally to the end. The dates, the sources and what remains open are in the decree explained, date by date.

What alternatives do you have to tourist letting?

Four, and they can be combined over time.

1. Operate to the end. The licence is valid until 9 November 2028. The only precaution is the booking calendar: no tourist stay may end after that date.

2. Seasonal letting, from 32 nights. In Catalunya a stay of up to 31 nights is tourist use; from 32 nights it is a seasonal let, which needs no tourist licence at all. Since 1 January 2026, under Law 11/2025, the contract must state the purpose of the stay and document it:

• If the purpose is leisure or holidays, and the tenant’s habitual residence is elsewhere, the contract is a lease for a use other than housing and the rent can be set freely (article 66 bis.4 of Law 18/2007).
• If the stay covers a housing need (work, study, medical reasons, a provisional situation), or a company signs to house a specific employee, housing rules apply and, in Barcelona, so does the reference price.

The stated purpose and the supporting documents are filed with INCASÒL together with the security deposit. Declaring a purpose that is not the real one is a very serious infringement, so the paperwork is your protection, not a formality.

One detail that reassures many owners: the owners’ association can only restrict tourist use (article 553-26 of the Civil Code of Catalunya, by a four-fifths majority). Seasonal letting needs no vote; you should simply check that the building’s statutes contain no clause restricting letting.

3. A long-term residential lease. A five- or seven-year contract, with the price capped in Barcelona, which is a stressed residential market area.

4. Selling. Without the licence, the apartment is one more home on the market. It is a decision about your assets, and the time to take it is before 2028, not after.

None of these options forces you to rush. The licence is valid to the end, and the change of regime can be planned with months to spare.

Tourist or seasonal: which is more profitable?

It depends on the apartment and on the owner, and there is no single figure. Tourist letting has higher nightly rates, but also more turnover, more costs and an expiry date. Seasonal letting for leisure has freely set rents, less turnover and more seasonal demand. Seasonal letting for a housing need has a capped price.

In a forthcoming guide we will compare the two regimes with publicly available price ranges, so that you can run your own numbers. In the meantime, what a property management company charges in Barcelona helps you calculate the costs of each option.

What you can do now

• Check your licence: the HUTB number and the registration date in the Catalan Tourism Register. Adverts only need to show the HUT number; the national rental register procedure was annulled by the Supreme Court, so there is no other number to apply for.
• Set your timetable: how long you want to let the apartment for tourist stays and when you want seasonal letting to start. Tourist bookings must end before 9 November 2028.
• Review the building’s statutes in case they restrict letting.
• Run the numbers for both regimes with your tax adviser, because taxation also changes with the type of contract.
• Prepare the apartment for long stays: a valid habitability certificate and energy certificate, equipment for living in it and not only sleeping in it, and a well-drafted seasonal contract.

If you want to change manager before 2028, here is how it is done and what to ask for.

And for guests, what changes?

Little until 2028, and from then on one simple rule: stays of up to 31 nights in an apartment need a tourist licence, and in Barcelona there will be none; stays of 32 nights or more remain possible as seasonal lets. We explain it from the guest’s side in “Barcelona after 2028: what happens to the serviced apartments”.

How Bizflats can help

Bizflats manages licensed tourist apartments and seasonal lets in Barcelona. We know both regimes from the inside: the contracts, the INCASÒL deposit, the documentation of purpose, the channels used to market longer stays and the ones best avoided.

• Property management for owners: what we do and how we work.
• Letting your apartment monthly without a tourist licence: where the legal line sits and what it involves.
• What everyone gets wrong about 2028: the distinction between a tourist stay and long-stay housing.
• Request a free assessment of your apartment: we tell you what we see and which options make sense in your case.

We favour balanced, data-based regulation and firm action against illegal listings. In the meantime, we comply with the current regulations, and help owners do the same without surprises.

Rental regulation in Catalunya is changing. We follow every change closely and, if anything in this guide stops being true, we will update it and inform the owners who work with us.