An ambitious auction by the Barcelona City Council to breathe new life into its famed municipal markets has largely fallen flat, with a staggering 80% of the vacant stalls on offer failing to find new operators. The result, confirmed by the council, highlights significant challenges facing the city’s traditional commerce sector, including a lack of generational succession and mounting economic pressures.
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The auction, held in late 2025 by the Municipal Institute of Markets (Institut Municipal de Mercats), put 76 empty stalls up for tender across the city’s extensive market network. However, only 15 were successfully adjudicated. Of those, 11 were for food-related businesses and just four for non-food products. A separate auction for 15 logistical warehouses saw a slightly better outcome, with eight finding tenants.
The disappointing results were made public by the Councilor for Commerce, Marta Villanueva, during an Economy Commission meeting on Tuesday, following a request for information from the political party Junts per Catalunya. Villanueva sought to contextualize the figures, noting that the 76 stalls offered represent only 4.2% of the 1,871 total stalls in Barcelona’s municipal system. The administration of Mayor Jaume Collboni maintains it is working to ensure no stall remains empty.
This perspective was met with skepticism from the opposition. Junts councilor Joana Ortega challenged the government’s portrayal of the situation.
“We go to the markets and we see many empty stalls,” Ortega stated during the commission, according to a report by betevé. “Then we come here, and it’s as if everything is sorted out.”
The debate sharpened over the financial burden of these inactive stalls. Currently, the vendors’ associations for each market must cover the general expenses and fees for the empty units, effectively forcing active stallholders to subsidize the vacant ones.
In response, Junts, represented by Jordi Martí Galbis, put forward a proposal for the City Council to assume the fees for these inactive stalls, alleviating the financial pressure on current vendors. The initiative passed with the unified support of all opposition parties, despite the governing Socialist Party (PSC) voting against it.
Councilor Villanueva defended the government’s opposing vote, arguing that support mechanisms are already in place. She pointed to a half-million-euro subsidy allocated to the associations in 2025.
Looking ahead, the city is preparing a new strategy to tackle the vacancies. Trade Commissioner Nadia Quevedo announced a forthcoming line of subsidies designed to “facilitate the reopening and modernization” of inactive stalls. The aid will be channeled through the ‘Impulsem el que fas’ program, managed by the local development agency Barcelona Activa, which aims to boost the local economy and create quality employment. The hope is that this new financial incentive will prevent the next auction from, as one local report put it, resulting in “so many shutters down.”
