Athens Follows Barcelona And More As Greece And Spain Rein In Short-Term Rentals With Freezes, Tough Caps Across Tourism Hubs

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Athens is another city that joins Barcelona in regulating short-term rentals because of the difficulties faced by tourism centers in finding a balance between the growth in tourism and accommodation of tourists. Greece has put in place a freeze on new short-term rental licenses for three districts of Athens for 2026. Barcelona, however, is taking an even more comprehensive approach, which aims at terminating thousands of tourist flat licenses by the end of 2028.

The changes do not mean tourists can no longer book holiday apartments in Athens or Barcelona. Instead, authorities are restricting the creation or continuation of certain tourist rentals in areas where visitor accommodation has become highly concentrated. Florence, Amsterdam, Paris, Madrid, Portugal, the Balearic Islands and Slovenia are also applying different combinations of freezes, licensing requirements, annual caps and planning controls.

For travellers, Europe’s accommodation landscape is therefore changing. Short-term rentals remain a major part of tourism, but cities increasingly want tourism growth to coexist with permanent residential communities.

Athens Freezes New Short-Term Rental Registrations Across Central Districts

Athens has taken one of Greece’s clearest steps to control further short-term rental expansion.

The restriction covers the 1st, 2nd and 3rd municipal districts of Athens. Properties in these areas cannot be registered for the first time in Greece’s Short-Term Stay Property Registry while the freeze applies.

The original restriction began on 1 January 2025. Greece continued the measure through 2026 as part of its response to housing pressure and the rapid growth of visitor accommodation.

This is not a complete prohibition on short-term rentals.

Existing properties with valid registrations can generally continue operating provided they comply with applicable regulations. What has effectively been frozen is the entry of additional properties into the registered short-term rental market within the designated districts.

That distinction matters for both tourists and property owners.

How The Athens Rental Freeze Actually Works

Greece uses an official Short-Term Stay Property Registry administered through its tax authority. Registered properties receive an AMA or Property Registry Number, which plays a central role in legal short-term rental activity.

During the Athens freeze, a previously unregistered property within the affected central districts cannot simply enter the market by obtaining its first registration.

The policy therefore acts as a brake on supply growth rather than removing every existing holiday apartment.

Greece has subsequently moved towards making the restriction even more consequential when ownership changes. The wider policy direction demonstrates that authorities increasingly view short-term rental registration as a controlled right in housing-stressed locations rather than something that can expand indefinitely.

The objective is to prevent additional residential properties in saturated districts from continuously migrating towards visitor accommodation.

Athens Rental Safety Has Become Another Major Tourism Issue

The supply freeze now intersects with a separate debate over accommodation safety.

Athens recorded 18,769 short-term rental units in 2025, while Greece reportedly had 116,636 active properties nationwide.

Yet approximately 1,500 inspections had been conducted nationally since the beginning of 2026, with around 400 concerning Attica.

Those numbers should not be interpreted as evidence that uninspected properties are unsafe. They instead highlight the scale of the market compared with the inspection programme.

Safety received heightened attention following an explosion and building collapse on Lysikratous Street in historic Plaka. A short-term rental operated within the building, although the available information did not establish that the rental caused the explosion.

The incident nevertheless intensified discussion about ageing buildings, intensive visitor use and regulatory oversight.

Greece Introduces Tougher Safety Standards For Tourist Rentals

The freeze is only one component of Greece’s changing short-term accommodation system.

Under Law 5170/2025, minimum standards for short-term rental properties came into force on 1 October 2025.

Properties must meet requirements involving primary-use status, natural lighting, ventilation and air conditioning. Operators also face requirements involving liability insurance, electrical compliance and pest-control certification.

Authorities can conduct compliance inspections, including through cooperation between tourism officials and Greece’s Independent Authority for Public Revenue.

This means Athens entered 2026 with two powerful regulatory mechanisms operating simultaneously.

The first controls how many additional properties can enter the short-term rental sector in selected districts.

The second regulates the standards under which existing accommodation operates.

For tourists, this increasingly links holiday-apartment regulation with safety and accommodation quality.

Plaka Shows Why Athens Faces An Extraordinary Tourism Challenge

Few neighbourhoods demonstrate the pressure more dramatically than Plaka and Monastiraki.

A tourism carrying-capacity study commissioned by the Municipality of Athens reportedly found approximately 200 short-term rental tourists for every permanent resident in the Monastiraki-Plaka area during 2025.

Plaka presents an especially complicated case because it is simultaneously a residential neighbourhood, historic district and major visitor attraction.

Planning protections are also unusually strong. A 1993 presidential decree restricts new hotels within the protected area.

This creates a fundamental planning question. If conventional hotel expansion is restricted to protect the historic neighbourhood, authorities must determine how intensive short-term rental activity fits within the same objective.

The issue therefore extends beyond accommodation supply. It concerns the long-term character of one of Athens’ most recognisable tourism districts.

Barcelona Goes Further With A Long-Term Tourist Apartment Phase-Out

Barcelona provides an even more dramatic example of intervention.

Rather than simply stopping additional properties from entering the market, Barcelona intends not to renew licences for existing tourist apartments as their current authorisations expire under the applicable Catalan framework.

The policy affects more than 10,000 tourist-use homes and is intended to culminate by the end of 2028.

Barcelona’s strategy therefore differs fundamentally from Athens.

Athens is primarily preventing new registrations in designated central districts while allowing qualifying existing properties to continue.

Barcelona’s policy aims ultimately to return thousands of currently licensed tourist flats to conventional residential use.

For the tourism sector, that could progressively reshape the accommodation mix available to visitors.

Hotels, hostels, aparthotels and other regulated accommodation could become increasingly important if the supply of licensed tourist apartments contracts.

Spain Uses Local And Regional Controls Rather Than One Simple National Freeze

Barcelona should not be treated as representative of every destination in Spain.

Spanish short-term rental regulation involves national, regional and municipal rules, meaning restrictions vary substantially between destinations.

Barcelona’s zero-growth and phase-out approach is among the country’s strongest.

Other Spanish tourism centres are taking different routes.

This distinction is important for travellers. A tourist visiting Barcelona may encounter very different accommodation regulations from someone travelling to Madrid, Mallorca, Ibiza or another Spanish destination.

The common theme is greater intervention where authorities believe high concentrations of visitor accommodation are affecting residential neighbourhoods.

That makes Spain one of Europe’s most important laboratories for short-term rental regulation.

Balearic Islands Restrict New Tourist Rentals In Apartment Buildings

The Balearic Islands, including Mallorca and Ibiza, represent another significant Spanish case.

New tourist rentals in apartment buildings face prohibitions, although qualifying single-family properties can be treated differently.

The approach targets a specific form of accommodation expansion rather than removing all holiday rentals.

That is particularly important in island destinations where tourism demand can place intense seasonal pressure on housing.

Mallorca and Ibiza depend heavily on international tourism, so policymakers face the same difficult equation seen in Athens and Barcelona: maintaining accommodation capacity for visitors while protecting enough residential supply for people who live and work locally.

The Balearic model demonstrates that restrictions can be designed around property type, not merely neighbourhood boundaries.

Madrid Uses Planning Rules To Reshape Tourist Accommodation

Madrid has chosen another route.

Its Plan RESIDE uses urban planning to limit the displacement of residential uses by tourist accommodation.

Rather than describing Madrid as operating a blanket rental freeze, it is more accurate to view the Spanish capital as applying increasingly strict conditions governing where tourist accommodation can operate within residential buildings.

The policy has already coincided with a sharp decline in applications for tourist-home planning licences.

Madrid therefore illustrates how cities can restrict short-term rentals without adopting either Athens’ registration freeze or Barcelona’s planned licence phase-out.

For visitors, the outcome may nevertheless feel similar over time: slower expansion of tourist apartments in residential areas and stronger separation between visitor accommodation and permanent housing.

Florence Expands Its Short-Term Rental Freeze In 2026

Italy has joined the European tightening trend through Florence.

From 21 June 2026, Florence expanded restrictions preventing new short-term tourist rental activities from starting in designated areas.

The restrictions already covered the UNESCO historic centre and were extended into additional zones surrounding central Florence, including areas around Campo di Marte, San Jacopino, Gavinana, Statuto, Rifredi, Libertà and others.

The scale explains why the city is acting.

Florence recorded 16,906 tourist rentals in 2025, representing approximately 56% of the city’s accommodation bed capacity. The city also recorded more than 4.7 million arrivals and 11.5 million overnight stays that year.

Florence is therefore among the closest European comparisons to Athens: both are major heritage destinations using geographic restrictions to prevent additional short-term rental concentration.

Amsterdam Introduces One Of Europe’s Toughest Annual Caps

Amsterdam is restricting short-term rentals differently.

From 1 April 2026, eight neighbourhoods became subject to a maximum of just 15 holiday-rental nights per calendar year, compared with the standard Amsterdam limit of 30 nights.

The affected neighbourhoods include Jordaan, Haarlemmerbuurt, Grachtengordel-West, Grachtengordel-Zuid, Weteringschans, Burgwallen-Nieuwe Zijde, Nieuwmarkt/Lastage and Oude Pijp.

This is not a registration freeze like Athens.

Instead, Amsterdam uses an extremely tight annual operating cap to reduce the intensity of residential properties being used for visitors.

For travellers, it can reduce the number of nights that individual homes are available, particularly within some of Amsterdam’s most sought-after central districts.

Paris Keeps Holiday Rentals Under A Strict Ninety-Day Ceiling

Paris also demonstrates how Europe is moving beyond unrestricted short-term letting.

Entire primary residences can generally be rented as tourist accommodation for no more than 90 days annually, while secondary residences face tougher change-of-use requirements.

Paris therefore does not operate the same kind of geographic freeze as central Athens.

Its strategy instead restricts the amount of time ordinary residential homes can effectively become visitor accommodation.

The French system also gives authorities significant enforcement tools against properties operating outside applicable rules.

For tourists, legitimate short-term rentals remain available. But the city increasingly treats residential housing as a resource requiring protection from excessive conversion into year-round tourist inventory.

Portugal Gives Municipalities Powers To Suspend New Registrations

Portugal adds another model to Europe’s regulatory patchwork.

Municipalities can suspend new Alojamento Local, or local accommodation, registrations in designated areas while preparing or revising their local regulatory frameworks.

Exceptional measures introduced in 2026 strengthened the ability to maintain certain suspensions through the end of the year.

Portugal therefore does not have one nationwide freeze comparable with Athens’ three-district measure.

Instead, municipal authorities can respond according to local housing and tourism conditions.

That flexibility is significant for destinations where tourism intensity varies dramatically between historic centres, coastal resorts and less visited communities.

Slovenia Brings Stronger Limits To The National Level

Slovenia’s approach is notable because tighter short-term rental controls are embedded within a broader national hospitality framework.

The country’s 2026 rules allow annual rental-day restrictions that can become especially stringent in housing-pressure areas.

In certain circumstances, limits can fall as low as around 30 rental days annually.

That makes Slovenia different from Athens, Barcelona and Florence, where highly targeted urban restrictions dominate the story.

It demonstrates that Europe’s short-term rental debate is no longer confined to famous overtourism destinations.

National governments increasingly view holiday rentals through the combined lenses of tourism management, housing availability, neighbourhood stability and regulatory fairness.

Europe’s Tourism Boom Is Forcing Cities To Rethink Holiday Apartments

Short-term rentals remain enormous within European tourism.

Across the EU, approximately 952 million guest nights were booked through major online short-stay platforms during 2025, an increase of around 11.4% from 2024. The sector therefore cannot be treated as a marginal accommodation category.

New EU short-term rental transparency rules applying from 20 May 2026 strengthen data collection and sharing between platforms and public authorities. The European framework does not itself prohibit holiday rentals. Instead, it gives authorities better information for monitoring accommodation activity and enforcing legitimate local rules. That could make future restrictions more targeted and easier to administer.

What The Rental Crackdown Means For European Travellers

Travellers should not interpret Europe’s changing regulations as the end of short-term rentals. The reality is more nuanced.

Athens is freezing new registrations in three central districts. Barcelona plans to phase out thousands of tourist-flat licences by 2028. Florence has expanded areas where new short-term tourist rentals cannot start. Amsterdam imposes extremely low annual rental caps in selected neighbourhoods. Paris restricts primary residences to 90 tourist-rental days, while Madrid, Portugal, the Balearics and Slovenia use their own planning, licensing or operating controls.

The common direction is unmistakable.

European tourism hubs increasingly want to determine where short-term rentals operate, how many enter the market and how intensively residential properties can serve tourists.

For travellers, this could gradually change where accommodation is available and increase the importance of checking whether a property is legally registered before booking.

For destinations, the challenge is larger. Cities want the economic benefits of tourism without allowing visitor accommodation to overwhelm the communities that make those destinations worth visiting.

Athens comes after Barcelona in Europe’s attempt to regulate short-term rentals through freezes and strict limits on tourism and housing development.

Now Athens and Barcelona have become the focus of Europe’s experiment. Their regulatory approaches are entirely different; nevertheless, they both mark a fundamental transition in terms of the management of tourism development with regard to housing capacity.