Costa News Spain Breaking News | English News in Spain.
The Spanish government announced the removal of over 8,000 holiday flats from popular online platforms like Airbnb and Booking.
The Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced the plan during a rally held in Malaga, Spain on Sunday. He described housing as the main problem of the province.
He said that the flats do not meet the legal requirements, and they will be removed from the national register on Monday.
Nearly half of all the properties in Spain that will be affected are located in Andalusia. Malaga has the highest number of removals at 8,014.
READ MORE Pedro Sanchez vows to remove 53,000 tourist flats and convert them into ‘permanent rentals’ for young people during Malaga visit
The government says that the owners should rent out these flats on a long-term basis, but there’s no guarantee.
Isabel Rodriguez, housing minister, welcomed this move. She said that the homes are for residents, and not to make neighbourhoods “theme parks”.
The areas most affected within Malaga province include Marbella, where 1,802 flats are to be removed, followed by Malaga city with 1,471, Benalmádena with 926 and Fuengirola with 686. Sevilla, outside of the province, will be losing 2,289 properties.
This measure is a result of a new law that was introduced on July 1, requiring all holiday rentals to have a registration number. Property owners who applied, but did not meet the criteria have now lost their authorization.
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More than 336,000 applications nationwide have been submitted since January. However, around 20% of those have been denied.
Sanchez said this decision reflects the new housing policy designed to address Spain’s crisis of rental housing. “We’ve detected thousands of irregularities when it comes to tourist rentals, and we’ll turn 53,000 homes into permanent residences,” he said.
Andalusian Regional Government has strongly criticized the decision. Arturo Bernal, the Tourism Chief of Madrid, accused Madrid “demonising”, the tourism industry which supports over half a milllion jobs.
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He said the regulation was legal questionable and warned that it would create uncertainty for property owners.
The conflict highlights the tension between Spain’s booming rental market for tourists and the struggle to find affordable housing.
The government says that this will help to rebalance the supply in Malaga, which is one of the most affected regions by the rising rents.
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