Barcelona, New York and Lisbon Seek Powers to Limit Housing Prices

19 November 2017

Public officials in the cities of Barcelona, New York and Lisbon are calling for limits on housing prices in a joint document calling for “more legislative capacity” to address “the increase in speculative pressure.”

“The city is our home, but these days it is also where the right to housing, one of our most basic rights, is most endangered,” Brad Lander, New York City’s head of affordable housing, Paula Marques, Lisbon’s councillor for Housing and Local Development, and Laia Ortiz, the Barcelona City Council’s councillor for social rights, wrote in a document quoted today by the Spanish news agency EFE.

The three municipal officials believe that rental price regulations are needed that would allow cities to set reference prices and prohibit owners from raising rents above these limits.

Such a ceiling is already a reality in New York, Paris and Berlin, but not in Barcelona, which has been seriously considering limitations, but has been blocked by the Regional Government of Catalonia and by the Spanish State, the two governments with legislative jurisdiction.

The joint document from Barcelona, New York and Lisbon entitled “Towards the right to housing: local power, global politics” argues that the success and attractiveness of cities put their residents and stable families at risk because tourism pressure increases prices and causes more and more apartments to be offered for rent to tourists and non-tourist short-term stays rather than permanent residences.

“The proliferation of rental companies for short periods like Airbnb is a problem shared between the cities that signed this article,” they say.

In fact, local authorities point out that the consequence of all this is the increase in residential exclusion, of families displaced to the urban periphery and in the most extreme cases, consigned to homelessness.

“Our cities are not a commodity; they are a very diverse community of people who want to live and prosper together, in common… where the right to the city, the right to housing, is guaranteed,” the article concludes.

Housing is one of the central themes of the Eurocities network’s Social Affairs Forum, which comprises 140 cities in Europe and is currently chaired by Barcelona.

The Lusa agency contacted the city council in Lisbon for more details on a joint position but has so far received no response.

Original Story: Sapo 24 / MadreMedia / Lusa

Translation: Richard Turner