BARCELONA, June 21 (Reuters) - Barcelona, a top Spanish

holiday destination, announced on Friday that it will bar

apartment rentals to tourists by 2028, an unexpectedly drastic

move as it seeks to rein in soaring housing costs and make the

city liveable for residents.

The city's leftist mayor, Jaume Collboni, said that by

November 2028, Barcelona will scrap the licences of the 10,101

apartments currently approved as short-term rentals.

"We are confronting what we believe is Barcelona's largest

problem," Collboni told a city government event.

The boom in short-term rentals in Barcelona, Spain's most

visited city by foreign tourists, means some residents cannot

afford an apartment after rents rose 68% in the past 10 years

and the cost of buying a house rose by 38%, Collboni said.

Access to housing has become a driver of inequality,

particularly for young people, he added.

National governments relish the economic benefits of

tourism - Spain ranks among the top-three most visited countries

in the world - but with local residents priced out in some

places, gentrification and owner preference for lucrative

tourist rentals are increasingly a hot topic across Europe.

Local governments have announced restrictions on

short-term rentals in places such as Spain's Canary Islands,

Lisbon and Berlin in the past decade.

Spain's Socialist housing minister, Isabel Rodriguez, said

she supported Barcelona's decision.

"It's about making all the necessary efforts to

guarantee access to affordable housing," she posted on X.

Vacation rentals platform Airbnb ( ABNB ), which hosts a

significant number of Barcelona listings, did not immediately

respond to a request for comment.

"Collboni is making a mistake that will lead to (higher)

poverty and unemployment," Barcelona's tourist apartments

association APARTUR said in a statement, adding the ban would

trigger a rise in illegal tourist apartments.

Hotels stand to benefit from the move. The opening of

new hotels in the city's most popular areas was banned by a

far-left party governing Barcelona between 2015 and 2023, but

Collboni has signalled he could relax the restriction.

Barcelona's hotel association declined to comment on

Friday's announcement.

"Those 10,000 apartments will be used by the city's

residents or will go on the market for rent or sale," said

Collboni said of the measure.

Barcelona's local government said in a statement it would

maintain its "strong" inspection regime to detect potential

illegal tourist apartments once the ban comes into force.

No new tourist apartments have been allowed in the city

in recent years. The local government has ordered the shutting

of 9,700 illegal tourist apartments since 2016 and close to

3,500 apartments have been recovered to be used as primary

housing for local residents, it said.