“Airbnb is evicting us”, could we read on the stickers distributed by the 300 or so demonstrators in Bayonne on Wednesday evening, gathered in front of the headquarters of the Basque Country Agglomeration Community.

The latter were present to denounce the suspension by the administrative justice of a local regulation, intended to curb the expansion of tourist accommodation in the Basque Country, where the difficulties in finding accommodation lead to tensions.

This grouping follows the call of the collective "Vivre et se loger au Pays!"

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A delegation of demonstrators was then received by the elected officials to "think about a future settlement" in order to "counter-attack strongly", according to the organizers.

Long-standing tensions

The reasons for this anger?

Last Friday, the administrative court of Pau had suspended a regulation adopted by the Community of agglomeration Pays Basque.

The latter required the owners of furnished tourist accommodation to produce a property on the yearly rental market in compensation for accommodation intended for tourist rental, in the same town and with an equivalent surface area.

In 24 municipalities of the Basque agglomeration in a tight area, more than 16,000 tourist accommodations are currently listed, an increase of 130% between 2016 and 2020, according to the Atlantic and Pyrenees Urban Planning Agency (Audap).

And the Urban Community of the Basque Country (158 municipalities) estimates the number of vacant homes at 12,000 and 42,000 that of second homes.

Inscriptions “The Basque Country is not for sale” in the Basque language have flourished since last year on the fronts of real estate agencies and houses for sale.

In November, a demonstration for the right to housing brought together between 6,500 and 8,000 people in Bayonne.

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Basque Country: The question of tourist accommodation on the coast must be decided in a crucial vote of the agglomeration

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Basque Country: Between 6,500 and 8,000 demonstrators against rising property prices

  • Company

  • Lodging

  • Airbnb

  • Bayonne

  • Aquitaine