Barcelona’s mayor, Jaume Collboni, has reiterated that regulating rents is a necessary step to ease the city’s housing crisis but warned it is not enough on its own. ‘Regulation serves to soften the blow, afterwards we must inject affordable supply,’ he argued in an interview marking two years in office.
Collboni has made housing the defining issue of his mandate, framing it as a ‘right to stay’ policy: ensuring that no resident is forced to leave the city because of soaring prices. Yet despite new measures, including rent caps, the shortage of affordable housing remains severe. According to the most recent city barometer, housing has overtaken insecurity as the top concern for residents.
His administration began with the transfer of 11 municipal plots to the Catalan land institute Incasòl, though two years on only nine have advanced to project stage. By the end of his term, he promises to double the city’s capacity to produce public housing from 500 to 1,000 units annually and mobilise land equivalent to 10,000 protected flats.
Collboni claims rent regulation has already had an effect, noting a six per cent drop in prices after years of double-digit increases. He has also announced that tourist apartments will be banned from 2028, returning 10,000 flats to the residential market.
However, the new rules have led to tensions with investors, with some funds threatening to withdraw, labelling Barcelona’s policies as punitive. ‘Those who say this are the ones who were speculating,’ the mayor countered. He acknowledged that regulation alone shrinks private supply, which is why the city is also trying to unlock larger projects.
A controversial measure is the requirement that developers reserve 30 per cent of new housing for social use. Collboni has pushed to relax it, though political divisions have stalled approval. He remains confident the courts will support the city in defending such tools to protect residents in a strained market.
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