Catalonia will bend this 2025 and will allocate at least 25% of the collection of housing policies. The measure, agreed between Comuns and Government, seeks to capitalize on the volume of tourists who visit Catalonia year and relieve tension around access to the modification raises the rate between 2 euros (campings and basic establishments) and 7 euros (five -star hotels) a day in Barcelona; and between 1.20 and 6 in the rest of the territory. Catalonia raised about 85 million at 2023 and exceeded 90 million last year for the tourist rate: if the business volume of the tourism industry maintains the current rhythm, the Government will touch the 200 million euros annually of reuptake. The covenant also opens the door for the Catalan municipalities to enable a surcharge on the regional rate,
The measure, which the Government plans to approve soon, is presented today Thursday after months of stretches and loosen between common and socialists. The agreement was initially linked to the approval of regional budgets, but after the inability to seduce Esquerra to validate the accounts, it now formalizes the harmony between two of the three investiture partners. The leader of the commons in the Parliament, already urged in the Parliament to the president of the Generalitat, to promise to increase this rate, against what the tourist guild wants. The sector considers that increasing taxation puts the volume of business at risk, but political formations understand that economic benefit is much greater in relation to the risk that the industry really remains.
Of the almost 200 million that the Catalan government can raise annually, “a minimum of 25% of the resources will be assigned to housing policies,” according to the agreed text, to which the country has had access, “in order to contribute to the increase in the supply of affordable housing and the improvement of access to housing for vulnerable groups.” The regulation of the Fund for the Promotion of Tourism is also modified, expanding flexibility in the destination of the resources of the local entities, which may assign them to purposes related to “housing, economic promotion and cultural dynamization”, the writing continues.
Another of the most substantial changes is that municipalities can approve through their municipal ordinances a surcharge on established rates, as does Barcelona. The Catalan capital plans to enter 115 million annually, 20 more than the 95 scheduled in 2024, in a context in which Barcelona hotels reached the last year a record turnover of 2.2 billion euros. The Barcelona City Council explained last June that with those additional 20 million it intends to pay cleaning and security expenses, in addition to investing in Fira de Barcelona.
According to the new Tax Table for Tax on Tourist Stays in Catalonia, five -star hotels, luxury campsites and equivalent equipment will charge additional 6 euros; those of four stars, 2.40; tourist use establishments, 2 euros; and the rest of the equipment, 1.20. The new amounts, which require the green light of the Government, bend those that are currently in force since April 1, 2023. This same tax is slightly higher in Barcelona, where the charges will range from now between 2 and 7 euros. In total, a tourist who stays in a luxury hotel in Barcelona will pay in summer up to 11 euros a day for the rate: the seven of the regional tax plus the four of the municipal surcharge. that will pay between four and six euros based on the hours that are on Catalan soil.
The new taxation gives continuity to the agreement reached this week between the Government and Comuns to allocate several lots of the administration to the construction of 1,200 housing of public protection in different areas of Catalonia: Terrassa, Llançà, Barcelona, Sant Vicenç de Castellet, Esplugues, Girona, Tarragona, Xerta, Prades and Figueres
