Spanish officials are demanding that accommodation websites remove thousands of holiday lets in the Balearics, which could be a major blow to tourists. Spain’s housing ministry says 2,373 tourist apartments were applied for but have not been granted because they did not meet legal requirements.
Accommodation sites such as Booking.com and Airbnb—which are popular with Brits—are being instructed to remove adverts for these properties. If they fail to do so, they risk being slapped with a huge fine. Earlier this year, the implementation of a single registry for temporary accommodation began. Since it began operating, it has received a total of 336,497 applications across Spain, of which 264,998 correspond to holiday rentals. Of these, an astonishing 53,786 have been revoked.
Spain’s ministry says: “Spain has been the first country in Europe to implement the single registry for temporary accommodation, in collaboration with the Association of Registrars, in order to end fraud in tourist rentals.”
The ministry adds that the aim has been “to seek to preserve the social function of housing and combat illegal tourist apartments, which force families out of their neighbourhoods”.
The rapid growth of tourist rentals across Spain means that thousands of homes that once housed long-term tenants have been converted into short-term holiday apartments, pushing locals out of their home towns and cities.
The highest number of rejections has been in Andalusia – 16,740 – followed by the Canary Islands with 8,698.
Then Catalonia (7,729), Valencia (7,499), Galicia with 2,640, and then the Balearics with 2,373.
It comes after Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sanchez announced plans to remove 53,000 tourist apartments from rental platforms across the country, including a whopping 6,000 in the Malaga province alone, according to The Olive Press.
Mr Sanchez declared that his government had detected “thousands of irregularities” in properties listed as holiday rentals.
“We are going to demand the removal of 53,000 tourist flats from platforms for not complying with regulations, so they become permanent rentals for young people and families in this country,” Sanchez announced.
New regulations came into effect in July, requiring all properties offered as tourist rentals in Spain to have a mandatory registration code, including those on platforms like Airbnb, to ensure legal operation.
Property owners must apply for and receive a unique registration number, which then must be displayed on all online advertisements for the property. Properties without this code after the deadline have not been able to be legally rented.