6th October 2026
Tens of thousands of people have been protesting across Spain over the country's housing crisis, with rapidly rising rents and the growing influence of tourism among their biggest concerns.
The protests came after the Spanish parliament rejected government measures intended to strengthen tenant protection and restrict some forms of short-term rental accommodation.
The immediate political dispute is Spanish.
But the underlying problem is much wider.
Across Europe, popular tourist destinations are increasingly facing the same awkward question:
How much housing can be turned into holiday accommodation before local people begin to struggle to find somewhere to live?
And Scotland is not immune.
Spain is the most visible example
Spain has become the latest European country where housing and tourism have collided dramatically.
Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in more than 50 cities after parliament rejected two government measures aimed at tackling the housing crisis. Average rents in Spain have almost doubled over the past decade, while house prices have also risen sharply. (euronews.com)
Tourism is not the only reason.
Spain has a shortage of housing in many areas, rising demand, investment in property and demographic pressures.
But short-term holiday accommodation has become part of the argument.
A property that might previously have been rented to a local family for a year can potentially generate considerably more income if it is rented to tourists for short stays.
That creates an obvious economic incentive for owners.
But it also creates an obvious problem for residents.
And this is not just a Spanish problem
The European Commission now recognises that housing pressures are particularly severe in cities, islands and tourist destinations.
Its work on the European Affordable Housing Plan specifically identifies situations where demand significantly exceeds supply and says that some forms of non-primary use of housing can make it harder for people to find long-term homes. (ec.europa.eu)
The European Commission's economic analysis also identifies the expansion of short-term rentals as one of several factors contributing to housing demand, alongside urbanisation, demographic change and investment.
But there is an important warning here.
Short-term lets are not the whole explanation for Europe's housing crisis.
Housing supply, construction costs, population changes, household size, incomes, mortgage rates and investment all matter.
The European Commission's research says rents for new contracts have risen substantially in many parts of Europe while housing supply has struggled to keep pace. (ec.europa.eu)
So it would be too simple to blame Airbnb or tourism for everything.
But tourism can change the economics of a property
There is nevertheless a very straightforward calculation behind the problem.
If a property owner can earn more by renting to visitors for a few nights at a time than by offering it to a local household for a month, the financial incentive is obvious.
The OECD's latest tourism report gives an interesting example from Ireland.
Research found that, on average, a property in coastal areas only needed to be rented for around 6–8 days a month as a short-term holiday let to match the revenue from a month in the private rental market.
In Dublin, the equivalent figure was around 8–10 days.
That doesn't mean every Airbnb property would otherwise become a long-term rental.
The OECD specifically warns that the relationship is complicated.
But it demonstrates why tourism can change the economics of residential property. (oecd.org)
Europe is beginning to respond
The EU has recognised that governments need better information about the short-term rental market.
New European rules are being applied to improve transparency and data sharing.
In 2025, guests spent 951.6 million nights in short-term rental accommodation booked through online platforms across the EU.
That is an enormous industry.
The new framework is intended to give public authorities much better information about where these properties are, how often they are being used and whether operators are complying with local rules. (ec.europa.eu)
And different cities are beginning to take very different approaches.
Some are restricting the number of days properties can be rented.
Others are introducing registration systems.
Some require planning permission.
Others are restricting short-term lets in particular neighbourhoods.
The underlying argument is becoming increasingly familiar:
Tourism brings money and jobs, but residents also need somewhere to live.
Scotland has already recognised the problem
Scotland is actually ahead of much of the UK in one respect.
The Scottish Government introduced a licensing system for short-term lets, and local authorities have powers to establish short-term-let control areas.
The latest official statistics are striking.
At the end of 2025 there were 32,317 short-term-let licences or exemptions in operation across Scotland.
And 78% of active licences related to properties that were not the operator's primary residence.
That is important.
Most of Scotland's short-term-let activity covered by the licensing system isn't simply somebody occasionally renting out their spare bedroom.
There are substantial numbers of properties being operated as secondary accommodation.
Across Scotland there were 118 active short-term lets per 10,000 dwellings.
But that national average is potentially misleading.
Because some communities have vastly higher concentrations.
The rural and island problem is much bigger
In Na h-Eileanan Siar, there were 707 short-term lets per 10,000 dwellings.
The figure in East Renfrewshire was only 10.
That is an enormous difference.
It demonstrates why a national average can hide what is happening in individual communities. (gov.scot)
This is particularly important for Scotland's islands, Highlands and other tourist destinations.
A village does not need thousands of Airbnb properties before the effect becomes noticeable.
If a community has only a few hundred houses, even a relatively small number being converted to holiday accommodation can make a significant difference to the number of homes available to local residents.
And the people most affected may be those with the least ability to compete financially.
Young people.
Key workers.
Nurses.
Teachers.
Care workers.
Police officers.
People working in hotels and restaurants.
The very people needed to operate the tourism economy can find themselves unable to afford to live in the tourist destination.
That is a strange economic circle.
Scotland's own Government acknowledges the problem
This isn't simply a claim made by housing campaigners.
The Scottish Government's 2026 guidance for local housing strategies explicitly says that second homes, particularly when concentrated in particular areas, can reduce the supply of permanent homes.
It also says that second homes can operate as short-term lets and that both can contribute to local housing pressures, including difficulties in providing homes for key workers.
The guidance acknowledges that short-term lets bring economic benefits through tourism and jobs, but says that high concentrations can be problematic. (gov.scot)
That is a fairly important admission.
The Scottish Government is effectively saying that tourism accommodation can compete with housing for local people.
Highland Council is now looking at the issue
The issue is particularly relevant in Highland.
Highland Council has been considering short-term-let control areas in parts of the Highlands where the concentration of holiday accommodation is creating concerns about housing and community sustainability.
This is not necessarily an argument against tourism.
Highland depends heavily on tourism.
The visitor economy supports accommodation, restaurants, shops, attractions, transport and thousands of jobs.
But tourism also requires people to live locally to provide those services.
That creates the paradox.
A place can become so successful as a tourist destination that the people needed to run the tourist economy can no longer afford to live there.
The evidence is complicated
There is an important qualification.
It would be wrong to claim that every short-term let represents a home that would otherwise have housed a local family.
Some properties have always been holiday homes.
Some owners would never have entered the long-term rental market.
Some areas have more vacant and second homes than they can realistically use for permanent housing.
And tourism can bring significant economic benefits.
The OECD says the evidence linking short-term rentals directly to housing problems is mixed and that the relationship is difficult to prove conclusively.
Research in Ireland, for example, found no clear relationship between increases in Airbnb activity and falls in new private tenancies at local level.
So we shouldn't turn a complicated housing problem into a simple "Airbnb is to blame" argument.
But concentration matters
This may be the most important point.
A national figure can suggest that short-term lets are relatively small compared with the total housing stock.
The experience of a particular village can be completely different.
The OECD notes that short-term rentals account for around 1.2% of the EU's overall housing stock, but some coastal and rural tourism destinations and particular urban neighbourhoods have substantially higher concentrations. (oecd.org)
This is why the argument increasingly becomes local rather than national.
If 1% of homes in a huge city become tourist accommodation, the impact may be difficult to see.
If 10%, 15% or 20% of the housing in a small community is unavailable for permanent residents, the consequences could be much more obvious.
Scotland therefore faces a difficult balancing act
There are really two legitimate economic arguments.
The first says:
Tourism creates jobs, income and economic activity. Don't strangle it.
The second says:
A community cannot survive if the people who live and work there cannot find homes.
Neither argument can simply be dismissed.
And this is where Scotland's approach of giving councils more information and planning powers becomes important.
Perhaps the answer isn't a blanket ban on holiday lets.
Perhaps it is identifying communities where the concentration has become too high and giving local authorities the ability to intervene.
That is broadly the direction Scotland has been taking.
Could Britain eventually see Spanish-style protests?
That may be the more interesting question.
Scotland has not experienced anything on the scale of the current Spanish demonstrations.
And Scotland's rental market is behaving differently from Spain's.
The latest ONS figures show Scottish average private rents at £1,013 a month in August 2026, up only 1.1% over the year. In Highland and Islands, however, average rents were £739, up 4.3%, with one-bedroom rents rising 5.2%.
The numbers therefore don't suggest a Scotland-wide Spanish-style rental explosion at present.
But averages again conceal local pressures.
And that is exactly why the Highlands and islands deserve attention.
The question Scotland may eventually have to answer
Tourism is one of Scotland's great economic assets.
But housing is one of the basic requirements for a functioning society.
The two should complement each other.
They shouldn't compete to the point where one undermines the other.
If too many houses become holiday accommodation, local people struggle to find homes.
If too many restrictions are imposed, tourism businesses may struggle to find accommodation for visitors and investment may fall.
There is no magic number that works everywhere.
But perhaps there is a simple test for every tourist community:
Can the people who work here still afford to live here?
If the answer eventually becomes no, then the tourism success story has created a rather serious problem of its own.
Spain's protests are a warning that housing can move from being a technical policy issue to becoming a major political issue very quickly.
Scotland may not be at that point.
But with more than 32,000 licensed or exempt short-term lets, and with concentrations vastly higher in some island and rural communities, it would be unwise to assume that the question is going away.
The challenge is not choosing between tourists and residents.
It is finding a way for both to have a future.