Collboni attributes a regulated average rent of €1,140 in Barcelona

The Mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, defends at the Housing World Summit that regulation has curbed speculation. According to his figures, the average rent would be €1,500 without it.

Jaume Collboni, Mayor of Barcelona, has used the central day of the Housing World Summit (HOWS Barcelona) to advocate for rent regulation before several municipal leaders from other countries. He argued that cities must act locally against a phenomenon that, in his words, expels young people.

Collboni has quantified his argument. According to Incàsol data published this week, the average rent price in the Catalan capital is €1,140 per month, and without regulation, he claims it would be around €1,500. He also states that rents have decreased by 4.4% in the last two years, after rising by 80% in the previous decade.

“Regulation has served to stop the blow of speculation, and we are the only major city in Spain that has done so.”

The mayor recalls that his first decision at the head of the City Council was to process the declaration of Barcelona as a stressed housing market area. He also mentions the promise to prohibit tourist apartments from 2028, a measure that, according to him, will allow 10,000 homes to return to the residential market.

Collboni places the decrease in purchases of entire buildings by investment funds at 30%. In his view, these funds have accepted that the rules have changed in the city. Another point he highlights is rehabilitation, a path that the City Council wants to promote because in Barcelona, the number of homes under construction has doubled in four years.

The director of Habitat-ONU, Anacláudia Rossbach, also spoke at the meeting, warning that 3.4 billion people live in housing that does not meet minimum habitability conditions. According to her data, 1.2 billion live in informal settlements and 64 million were evicted between 2003 and 2023.

Joining Collboni at the summit are the Mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala, the Mayor of Dublin, Daryl Barron, the Governor of the metropolitan area of Santiago de Chile, Claudio Orrego, and Toronto City Councillor, Alejandra Bravo. For the residents of Barcelona, the housing debate continues to shape the rent prices they pay each month.