Tourist town on Spain’s Costa Blanca bans new licences for Airbnb-style flats for two years

L’ALFAS del Pi has joined neighbouring Costa Blanca towns like Altea and Polop in suspending new tourist accommodation licenses.

The council agreed on a two-year suspension at a plenary meeting and to prepare measures to regularise unlicensed properties through a new local law.

Government spokesperson, Toni Such, said: ”We will prosecute those owners of undeclared homes or those who do not follow the basic rules of coexistence.”

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L’Alfas council received 61 requests for tourism licenses in 2021, rising to 145 applications the following year and 230 in 2023.

The first nine months of this year have so far produced 237 requests.

“We took the decision for the suspension due to the proliferation of requests in recent years,” Such added.

There are 1,764 tourist properties in the municipality which appear on the Valencian Ministry of Tourism registry.

Toni Such acknowledged getting complaints about illegal homes as well as an increasing ‘nuisance’ in community buildings.

Other areas like Villajoyosa, Denia, and Sant d’Alacant are also looking into what measures they should take amid concerns of tourist ‘oversaturation’.

All municipalities in the Valencian Community have extra powers to deal with illegal properties after a new regional law was passed earlier this summer.