Press summary 5h Convention on Tourist Accommodation 10 October
The 5th Ibiza Tourist Housing Convention, organised by AVAT, PIMEEF and the Consell d'Eivissa, generated various reports in the local media.
SOURCE: DIARIO DE IBIZA, 8 OCTOBER 2019
The Consell de Mallorca wants to unblock 6,330 places in tourist homes in Ibiza
The island's highest institution aims to avoid prior inspections in the Responsible Declarations of Start of Activity to speed up the process
Bea Roselló - Eivisa
The Consell de Ibiza will work to implement a system to assign a registration number to all Responsible Declarations of Commencement of Activity (Driat) "without the need for prior inspection in order to speed up all pending procedures", explained the president of the Consell de Ibiza, Vicent Marí, yesterday at the inauguration of the fifth edition of the Holiday Dwelling Congress, held at the Centro Cultural de Jesús.
In this regard, Marí pointed out that, as of today, there are 863 pending files, which represent 6,330 holiday homes that, at the time, presented a Driat in due time and form and are waiting, in some cases since 2015, to obtain the tourist registration number.
It is a "dramatic" situation, as explained yesterday by the councillor for Land Management, Road Infrastructures and the Fight against Intrusiveness, Mariano Juan, who pointed out that, until now, the Department of Tourism carried out a prior inspection and then gave the registration number, "in the end it was de facto like a prior licence".
For Juan, the meaning of the Driat is that, once the documentation has been presented and as long as it complies with the regulations, it can be carried out "without having to wait for the administration and the bureaucracy to give you permission, that is a responsible declaration". Now, these stranded files cause "insecurity" for the owners because they do not have the registration number.
The presentation that opened the first day of the Ibiza Holiday Dwelling Congress dealt with the different existing local and regional regulations. The president of the Spanish Federation of Associations of Holiday Homes and Apartments (Fevitur), Tolo Gomila, was very critical of the Balearic Islands' tourism law, which he described as "the worst in Europe", and stressed that the public administration does not have the necessary structure to be able to prosecute those who do not comply with the regulations. Gomila also pointed out that the law has been denounced in Brussels.
The councillor for Territorial Planning, Mariano Juan, for his part, criticised the fact that if there is no control, it is "wasting time" and denounced the fact that if the administrations do not have the control or the legal mechanisms, "not only material but also legal, to carry out the corresponding inspections, it is useless". In this sense, he pointed out that when regulations are discussed, the theory is explained "very well", but if there are no legal procedures to "enforce compliance, it is useless".
Involutionary movements
"Without control or self-control of the sector, or control by the administration, you go to chaos, to an imbalance that manifests itself quantitatively with pirates or qualitatively with experts who rent villas for parties," he said. This situation, according to Juan, is what causes the "tension of coexistence and tension in the market", which favours the appearance of "involutionist movements": "Movements that want total and absolute prohibitions. In the end, the very lack of control in the sector provokes the opposite effect when everything explodes and they end up prohibiting it", he said.
In relation to the legal mechanisms, Juan believes that they should be "agile, fast and modern" and have electronic registers and coordination with marketers and the Treasury. "The control mechanisms of the laws are practically the same as they were 30 or 40 years ago and for a traffic sanction it may be valid, but it is not practical in many new areas and the tourist sector is an example and pirate taxis, the same", he pointed out.
Juan defended the "autonomy" of municipalities to decide the model of city they want through specific modifications and to make residential use compatible with tourist use, and criticised the fact that town planning laws make it "really impossible de facto" for a town council to approve regulations.
As for the debate on where tourist use is allowed and where it is not, the councillor pointed out that "we need to think about this as a society". "The Consell will have to make a social pact, not only with political parties, but also with society itself and the operators, to see how far we want to go or on what type of land and what type of housing, and to do so on the basis of consensus," he said.
The urban planning lawyer Rafa Encarnación, for his part, indicated that we have gone from "deregulation, which was not such because there were regional and state regulations, to hyper-regulation" and pointed out that tourist housing is currently regulated by "a lot of areas of civil and administrative law". For Encarnación, the municipal administrations have been "overwhelmed" by the attempt to regularise tourist use, which has only led to the "judicialisation" of zoning, as it should be based on urban planning criteria. He also indicated that the situation in Ibiza is "very restricted" due to the dispersion of housing, which complicates the compatibility of uses.
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SOURCE: DIARIO DE IBIZA, 8 OCTOBER 2019
Measures to achieve sustainable accommodation
Different companies are launching proposals to ensure that the property and its tenants respect the environment.
B.R. | Jesús
The second presentation of the first conference referred to environmental sustainability in tourist accommodation. In this debate, measures were put on the table to make tourist accommodation sustainable and environmentally friendly. The president of the Foundation for the Conservation of Ibiza, Sandra Benbeniste, was in charge of moderating the debate in which the heads of the companies Terravita, Solsulet, Mi Casa Tu Casa Ibiza and Ibiza Sostenible put forward proposals to help tourists respect the environment. Juan Calvo, a member of the Sustainability Observatory, also highlighted the importance of reusing water and reducing consumption by replacing lawn gardens with Mediterranean gardening, among other examples. Tom Hoddell, head of mi Casa Tu Casa Ibiza, highlighted the fact that the entire management of the home, including the cleaning service, should be sustainable, thus avoiding the use of chemical products.
During the afternoon, topics such as the security of holiday homes and options for increasing the profitability of properties were discussed.
The second day, which will take place today, will begin with a round table discussion with municipal representatives who will launch proposals for legislation during this term of office. It will continue with a debate on liberalisation versus regulation of the sector. In the afternoon, there will be a presentation on marketing platforms in the intermediation of housing accommodation. The fifth edition of the congress, for which more than 120 people have registered, will end with the subject of the taxation of holiday lettings.
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SOURCE: DIARIO DE IBIZA, 8 OCTOBER 2019
Tolo Gomila: "Profitability has fallen a lot because we no longer have the additional flow of tourists".
The president of Fevitur, Tolo Gomila, took part yesterday in the first day of the Holiday Holiday Dwelling Congress, which continues today with a debate on policy proposals by the island's different town councils.
B.Roselló | Jesús
The president of the Spanish Federation of Associations of Tourist Homes and Apartments (Fevitur), Tolo Gomila, pointed out that, according to Egatur, the cost-stay is 1,025 euros in the case of the client who goes to a hotel compared to 1,233 euros for the visitor who opts for a tourist home. Furthermore, the length of stay in the hotel sector is 4.4 days compared to 6.2 days in the housing sector.
Do you consider that tourist rental does not influence the price of rentals?
No, and it has been proven. In the city of Palma, for example, the supply of housing for tourist use has been reduced by 60% and the year-on-year variation has increased by 27%. At the end of the day, the impact on the housing issue is based on what you weigh, the problem is that there is a serious lack of housing. What needs to be looked at closely is the number of empty homes, which in Palma Ciutat is 16.2%, while the number of homes out of the residential park represents 0.79%. What needs to be done is to stimulate housing policies and seduce owners who have empty homes to put them on the market.
Do you think that the administration has done all it could do in terms of control?
In terms of control, zero. A law is bad when the administration that is supposed to protect it is not capable of doing so. There is neither an inspection service, nor a large number of inspectors, nor the telematic measures to be able to do so. We have to remember that this law was born as the Frankenstein law and that is how the councillor who approved it described it. We are facing a nonsense and what we see in other communities is that, if you give legislation that provides a legal and sustainable framework, and rights and responsibilities to administrators and those administered, illegal supply is reduced in a very important way.
Are you confident that a balance between residential and tourist use will be achieved?
The macroeconomic situation we have today will help us to achieve this balance and we will see a reduction in supply because, according to Frontur, this supply has already been reduced by 27% and we will reach a point of regulatory normalisation.
What is the reason for this reduction in supply?
There are people who, after all these years, have been left out because they cannot comply or cannot legalise their properties and, on the other hand, profitability has fallen a lot because we are no longer in the period of three years ago with an additional 5 million visitors of tourist flow due to the geopolitical situation we had in the Mediterranean arc.
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SOURCE: PERIÓDICO DE IBIZA, 8 OCTOBER 2019
The Consell has accumulated 863 applications for tourist activity since January 2015.
The institution says that the commercialisation of the places is not illegal and that it will speed up their issuing.
Noemí Martínez
The Consell d'Eivissa has a total of 863 files of Responsible Declaration of Tourist Activity Initiation (DRIAT) accumulated, which corresponds to 6,330 places; a backlog that, according to Mariano Juan, Conseller of Territory and Anti-intrusion of the Consell, has been accumulated since January 2015.
The Balearic Tourism Law establishes that in order to carry out a tourist rental activity, a DRIAT can be obtained, as it certifies that the property meets the requirements of the Law for tourist rental.
In this sense, once the DRIAT is presented and it is certified that the documentation provided by the lessor complies with the requirements, a number is automatically issued to validate the tourist registration. However, in Ibiza "the DRIAT is being used in the wrong way," Juan lamented. When it is presented, "the lessor is not given this identification".
This situation has meant that there are tourist places on the island that are in a "legal limbo" which, in the councillor's opinion, "cause insecurity for the person who has done all the paperwork properly". Although he stressed that these places are legal, he specified that, in theory, they should not be marketed on the internet because the platforms "have to ask for that registration number".
Despite this, Juan insisted that "the negligence of the Administration (in this case the Consell d'Eivissa) cannot harm the administrator", so it is not an illegality.
For this reason, the Tourism department of the island's highest institution is going to review all the documentation of the DRIATs to give them their corresponding registration number. "It only takes a few minutes. These people have the right to start their activity and are probably already doing so," he said.
The Balearic tourism law under scrutiny
At the fifth edition of the Ibiza Holiday Dwelling Congress, held yesterday at the Jesus Cultural Centre, the data published last week by Frontur was also discussed: housing for tourist use is decreasing and, in the Balearics, has fallen by 26% from 2016 to 2018.
In this sense, Tolo Gomila, president of the Spanish Federation of Associations of Tourist Housing and Apartments (Fevitur), let slip yesterday that the Tourism Law of the Balearic Islands is one of the worst at national level. "We have lost the responsible declaration of the start of tourist activity. In fact, there are autonomous communities where we are violating this declaration, as in the Balearic Islands, and the Administration is failing to comply with European law," he said, while stressing that "that is why it is being denounced in Brussels".
He also argued that the Balearic law does not allow for the monitoring of all infringements committed in this respect. "How many complaints have there been with the Balearic Tourism Law?
In his opinion, this regulation lacks consensus and he considered it necessary to "put ourselves in the shoes of those who manage" these properties. In this line, he specified that Fevitur has called for the creation of a national register of tourist accommodation and for the National Institute of Statistics to draw up a metric of what the real weight of tourist accommodation is. "What they measure now is the extra-hotel tourism supply (which contributes 63,500 million euros annually to GDP) and there are non-state studies that say that the contribution to GDP of tourist housing is 9,000 million euros," he remarked.
It is known that the weight of tourist housing in the Balearic Islands is 6.7% of the total residential stock. As for Ibiza, there is talk of 20,500 legalised places, "but this is not a real figure because there are many that are still awaiting the review of the dossier," explained José Antonio Llano, president of the Association of Tourist Housing and Accommodation (AVAT).
Sustainability
Environmental sustainability in tourist accommodation was also discussed at the Congress. Juan Calvo, coordinator of the Alliance for Water, stressed the importance of reducing water consumption because "we really have a very serious drought problem".
In fact, he pointed out that, in rural land dwellings, their consumption accounts for up to 30% of the water in the aquifers. "With actions such as changing the tropical garden from a lawn to a Mediterranean garden or opting for rainwater harvesting, between reducing and reusing, you can save up to 40%," he said.
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SOURCE: DIARIO DE IBIZA, 9 OCTOBER 2019
Competition defends in Ibiza the liberalisation of tourist homes
Four experts advocate liberalising the tourist rental market in a debate at the congress on holiday homes | They argue that governments apply restrictions under pressure from hoteliers, who they accuse of linking this business with civic and coexistence problems.
Marta Torres
The National Commission for Markets and Competition does not like Formentera's tourist housing regulations. That's how bluntly Pedro Hinojo, of the National Markets and Competition Commission, put it during the second day of the 5th Ibiza Tourist Housing Congress, organised by the Ibiza and Formentera Tourist Housing Association (AVAT), Pimeef and the Ibiza Council.
Hinojo, who took part in the debate 'Liberalisation versus regulation', argued in favour of the first option. "It seems that we have a reputation for excessive liberalisation, but competition tends to maximise social welfare," said the speaker, following the lead given by María Victoria Torre Sustaeta, a specialist in competition law and moderator of the debate, who during her introduction advocated "very clear" regulations without "loopholes" that favour "very formalistic" interpretations, as, in her opinion, has happened in Formentera. Hinojo indicated that Competition is not in favour of "zoning criteria" because, he said, "it violates the freedom of enterprise". "It is a purchase of time," said the economist, who affirmed: "You can't tell a tourist if he has to go to a hotel or to a flat. Hinojo was also against both the prohibition of a person renting rooms in the house where they live - "the shared home generates less pressure on rent" - as well as the requirements: "I don't think you can demand that there be wifi, a bedside table or a sofa. Let everyone go where they want.
"Regulating stifles the citizen himself, we have to protect the consumer, not the activity itself", said the moderator during a debate in which, despite the name, there was hardly any discussion, as all the speakers were practically in agreement. "Regulating tends to harm consumers," said Mateo Silos, chief economist at Ofwat (the water regulator in England and Wales), who pointed out that restrictions "maintain the privileges of the few". He backed this up with examples such as the liberalisation of the taxi sector or airlines.
"In the general interest, there is no justification for restricting competition and this is something that governments tend to forget", insisted the expert, who pointed out: "In English there is no word for intrusiveness and here there is an insular direction".
In this sense, and related to tourist housing, Silos defended that the approval of the Law of Urban Leases (LAU) the hoteliers of the Balearic Islands experienced "a boom in turnover" at the same time that overnight stays did not increase to the same extent. "And now the hoteliers are asking for more," he continued, before insisting that the restrictions on tourist rentals benefit hotel businessmen, a lobby which, he explained, just like taxi drivers or airlines, puts pressure on the government to avoid competition. Silos described the regulations on this issue on the islands as a "tangled web", which he defined as "opaque". "If I have a flat, I rent it to whomever I want", the expert concluded his speech.
"Campaign by the hoteliers
"There has been a campaign by hoteliers to link tourist rentals to civic problems and to an increase in the price of housing", indicated Carlos Pérez-Lanzac, president of the Andalusian Tourist Housing Association (AVVA), at the only moment in the debate in which they referred to the problems denounced by the neighbours of these rentals. And, in fact, it was to deny them: "In Malaga there have only been 21 incidents and in Seville 43. In addition, most of them were because the photos did not fit," said the president, who advocated for the organisation and associationism of the owners of this type of housing.
"The tourist rental has existed all my life, and now I am illegal," said Pérez-Lanzac, who asked those affected by the restrictions. During his presentation, the president of the Andalusian association demanded three things from those in power: minimum regulations that are the same for the whole of Spain, a difference between individual and professional operators "and that town councils are able to decide the tourism model they want".
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SOURCE: DIARIO DE IBIZA, 9 OCTOBER 2019
Morrás: "There is plenty of housing, but it is not used for what it should be used for".
The councillors of Sant Antoni, Sant Josep and Santa Eulària advocate the regulation of tourist rentals The owners charge against the administration during the congress
Doing the olive season in Andalusia or the grape campaign in France. This is the bitter future that awaits the residents of Ibiza if the tourists stop coming, according to Miguel Tur Contreras, councillor for Tourism of the Sant Antoni Town Hall, who spoke yesterday at the 5th Ibiza Tourist Housing Congress at the round table discussion 'Holiday homes: Policy proposals for the current legislature'. "Let's not forget that in Ibiza we live off tourism," continued the councillor, addressing an audience made up mostly of owners of holiday rentals.
Both he and his counterpart in Sant Josep, Vicent Roselló, were very keen to regulate tourist housing in all their speeches at the table, where there was representation from all the municipalities except Sant Joan, which excused itself at the last minute. "Staying in houses has always been a reality," said the councillor for Tourism Josepí, who defended "the special characteristics" of his municipality, where there are "many isolated houses" and advocated regulating this type of offer "with clear criteria" on the services they must offer and with a control that allows for "persecution" of those who manage them illegally. "Not everything goes, but if there is a demand, it is clear that there will be a supply and it must be regulated", he concluded. In the same vein, the island's councillor for the Presidency, Vicent Roig, who acted as moderator, said: "There are many pirates who offer yoga, celebrations and weddings.
"If we want this tourism that stays in homes, but regulated," said the first deputy mayor of Santa Eulària, Miquel Tur Rubio, who defended differentiating the uses of homes, as "the life and schedules" of a resident and a tourist are very different.
Aitor Morrás, Vila's councillor for housing, was the only municipal representative who was clearly against tourist rental in his municipality due to the "strong urban pressure", the fact that there are hardly any single-family homes and the consequences that, he said, this type of rental has on permanent housing: it increases the price and reduces the supply for those who are looking for a place to live all year round. "In the municipality there are 23,715 housing units and about 50,000 inhabitants. There is plenty of housing, but it is not used for what it needs to be used for," said Morrás, who highlighted the "problems" in recruiting civil servants for the island "due to the high cost of housing". "Before, there were already tourists who rented, but now there are companies that make it possible, and that means much more pressure", continued Morrás, who pointed out that, unlike other municipalities, the inhabitants of Vila do not have the option of moving to the outskirts to find housing due to the small size of the municipality.
The Sant Antoni councillor acknowledged, in fact, that the population of the town centre has moved in recent years: "They have gone to ses Païses, where there are currently around 6,000 people, almost as many as in the entire municipality of Sant Joan".
"Let's not forget the motorhomes, which are also rented out," said the Sant Josep councillor, who emphasised the tourist pressure on the island in summer: "There are four or five tourists for every resident". "Taking that and the legal offer into account means that on any given day in the summer there are 124,000 people staying, we don't know where," said Morrás. He was the most active during the round table, where he had to deal with owners of tourist rentals. Some denounced the lack of aid from the administration to give security to those who rent out their properties for the whole year, others stated that without them there would be "empty and closed flats", some criticised the lack of social housing and one even protested at feeling that the owners who rent out their properties to tourists are being blamed for the housing problem.
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SOURCE: IBIZA NEWSPAPER, 9 OCTOBER 2019
Town councils call for more "control" to attract quality tourism to Ibiza
They also advocate giving greater protection to owners of holiday rental properties
The second and final day of the V Congress of Ibiza's Holiday Holiday Homes brought together the different political proposals on holiday homes that the island's municipalities have.
Thus, Vicent Roig, moderator of the round table, explained that the institutions are on the right track - as far as multi-family homes are concerned - but he stressed the importance of investing in residential tourism, "tourism that contributes to the island".
For this reason, he said that it is important that there is a common will on the part of all the administrations, regardless of the political colour of the government, to try to achieve "quality" tourism. In this regard, he stressed the need to regulate the use of housing and to prosecute offenders. "There are people who do comply with the regulations and feel pressure," he said.
He also recalled that the basis for achieving this is through greater "control" and "the Consell is working on this in collaboration with the Guardia Civil and the police". In addition, he reiterated that the island's highest institution does not have powers within its regulatory framework to regulate certain aspects, but "more information must be provided in order to be able to act".
Town councils
For his part, Vicent Roselló, Councillor for Tourism at Sant Josep Town Hall, explained that the municipality is committed to regulating tourist housing through its municipal regulations and those of the supra-municipal administrations (Consell and Govern). "To regulate more and, above all, to be able to supervise, because it is very difficult to know what is going on in unregulated housing," he said.
In view of this situation, he said that the administrations have to provide more means and resources to exercise greater control, above all in relation to intrusion. "We have had occasional reports of houses being rented out illegally and we have passed them on to the bodies that have the power to act," he added, specifically in isolated houses in the municipality, which are mostly single-family houses on rural land.
As for Vila, Aitor Morrás, councillor for housing, pointed out that a "reflection" should be made that covers both the right to housing and the right to rent a home. "It has to fulfil a social function and have a residential use; it cannot be used for tourism because there is an unbearable pressure of rising prices for Ibiza's society," he said.
He explained that the inspection of tourist homes must be boosted and "we must try to mobilise those that are intended for the season so that they can be used annually". In this sense, he recalled that, at the end of this year or in the first months of 2020, the Municipal Housing Office will be set up with the aim of clearing up citizens' doubts on this matter.
"We have to implement active policies so that the population can access the real estate market and a reasonable rent all year round", he explained; something that "is difficult, but we will try".
Sant Antoni spoke of the reform he is carrying out in the hotel chain in the municipality with the clear objective of receiving "quality tourism". Likewise, Miguel Tur, councillor for Tourism, pointed out that work is also being carried out so that owners of properties on rural land can make changes to their plots.
The first deputy mayor of Santa Eulària Town Council, Miguel Tur Rubio, spoke of the difference between this municipality and Santa Eulària.
the difference between this municipality and others on the island. "We have very well-defined tourist and residential areas, which allows us to have tourist rental in a certain area," he said.
For this reason, he said that the Consistory's proposals will follow the same path as before: to continue with the separation of uses and to provide the tourist sector with security.
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SOURCE: HOSTELTUR, 14 OCTOBER 2019
Ibiza: holiday housing asks to extend the ceiling of 21,000 vacancies
"The island suffers from a serious housing shortage problem but we don't think it's the fault of tourist housing."
Xavier Canalis
Ibiza faces a serious problem every summer: the number of police, doctors, nurses and even employees in the tourist sector cannot be covered in the middle and high season due to the lack of rental housing. A part of the local population also suffers from rising prices. From different quarters, the tourist rental boom has been blamed for this situation. During a congress on holiday homes held on 8 October, we had the opportunity to talk to José Antonio Llano, president of the Association of Holiday Homes in Ibiza and Formentera.
At the congress, it seemed to me that there were two opposing views, which could be summed up as follows: "holiday homes have created a housing problem" versus "it is necessary to build more housing on the island to balance the market". What is the position of your association?
It is true that Ibiza suffers from a serious housing shortage but we do not believe that it is the fault of tourist housing, as has been said. In Spain there has been a lack of social housing for many years and what has happened? Well, the tourist rental boom has finally caught us unawares. That is to say, without social housing and without help for owners to get rid of the flats that are currently empty. There is a legal uncertainty that affects homeowners, who remain empty.
What is the specific rental situation in Ibiza?
Tourist rental is prohibited in multi-family blocks of flats, which seems to us to be the right thing to do on the island. Our association only represents tourist housing in single-family houses.
And how does the ceiling of 21,000 places affect you?
No more than the 21,000 places can be marketed on the whole island. There is an obligation to buy new places in order to create new tourist housing, but at prices that seem to us to be totally exorbitant because they have taken the prices paid for hotel places and equated them with tourist housing. It does not seem right to us because it is not the same thing to amortise a place in a hotel as a place in a holiday home.
Therefore, unlike cities such as Madrid, Barcelona or Valencia, where there are thousands of tourist places in blocks of flats, in the Balearic Islands only single-family houses can be marketed as tourist homes, whether they are detached or semi-detached...
Exactly. In the Balearic Islands, tourist rentals in multi-family houses are prohibited. In Ibiza we have 21,000 legalised places, all in single-family homes. This figure includes 6,000 places that the Ibiza Council is about to unblock, which were pending review.
I imagine that in addition to the 21,000 legalised places, there will be several thousand more unmonitored?
There are a great many illegal or unlawful ones. More than 20,000, probably. We have been asking for some time for the number of 21,000 legal places to be increased because we believe that many of these illegal places, if the door were opened a little, would be within the law and we believe that it is better to have them regulated, legislated, controlled and offer a quality product, than not to have them outside the legal offer, where there are no controls. If it is already difficult to control the regulated supply, the unregulated supply is almost impossible.
But raising the ceiling to 21,000 legal places may generate controversy on an island where there are housing problems?
All the local councils on the island have prohibited in their ordinances the mixing of uses in residential buildings, that is to say, that tourist and residential housing cannot coexist in the same block. We are asking for an increase in the number of places, not because we want to saturate the island with housing, because these single-family dwellings already exist, but to have them regulated, controlled, with fiscal transparency, compulsory insurance, etc.
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SOURCE: HOSTELTUR, 16 OCTOBER 2019
Holiday homes accuse hoteliers: "They have demonised us".
Regulatory frenzy to restrict tourist housing will hurt consumers, say competition experts
Xavier Canalis
Autonomous communities, island councils and city councils in different parts of Spain have launched a frenzy of regulation of tourist accommodation, in most cases with the aim of placing limits on this type of accommodation or banning it outright in certain areas. But according to an expert from the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC), "even if you ban tourist rentals, people will continue to rent through Facebook or any other social network". For their part, owners and managers of holiday homes accuse hoteliers of having "demonised" this accommodation sector.
It should be recalled that the CNMC has filed several appeals against the limitations on tourist rentals in cities such as Madrid, Bilbao and San Sebastián or on islands such as Formentera, as it understands that they are anti-competitive and detrimental to consumers.
According to Pedro Hinojo, a member of the CNMC's Sub-Directorate of Studies and Reports, "States prohibit things such as drugs, prostitution.... Are we really going to include tourist rentals in this?
This reflection was launched by Pedro Hinojo last week, during a round table that took place at the V Congress of Holiday Tourist Housing in Ibiza, an event that has reached its fifth edition.
"Non-optimal instruments".
According to Pedro Hinojo, "it is true that islands like Ibiza and Formentera have problems of lack of accommodation, but the instruments that are being chosen to correct this are not optimal," he said in reference to the regulations aimed at restricting the supply of holiday homes.
He said that regulations on holiday homes can often be masking an underlying debate. "What are you really looking for: fewer tourists? Then introduce an airport arrivals tax of 100 euros. The problem is that anti-holiday home regulations do not protect the good they claim to want to preserve," he said.
On the other hand, he added, "taxes correct externalities and raise revenue to compensate for them. For example, a tourist tax can help provide more efficient services.
General economic policy measures should also be considered, such as the promotion of social rental housing, he said.
"We have been demonised".
For his part, Carlos Pérez-Lanzac, president of the Andalusian Tourist Housing Association, lamented that "our sector was previously under the Law of Urban Leases but they took us out of there and now we have 17 autonomous regulations".
He also denounced that the first city councils that have introduced regulations to restrict holiday homes "have been Barcelona, Madrid, San Sebastian... The cities where, curiously, there is the highest hotel profitability".
"We have spoken to the hoteliers, so that we can work together on the common problems we have, but they don't want to," he said.
"Instead, the hoteliers tell us that they have to meet 250 standards, so we have to meet 250 standards. But they have services that a holiday home does not offer: a spa, a restaurant, etc, so they have to comply with all these regulations," added the president of the Andalusian Tourist Housing Association.
Furthermore, criticised Carlos Pérez-Lanzac, "the hoteliers have managed to make holiday homes be perceived as being responsible for the increase in rental prices and the problems of coexistence with neighbours. But in Seville in a whole year there have only been 43 incidents, in Malaga 21. In any case, they have managed to demonise our sector".
In the opinion of Carlos Pérez-Lanzac, "it would be necessary to have a minimum national regulation for holiday homes, which would clarify the figure of the professional operator".
"Regulatory capture
Another expert who participated in the congress was the economist Mateo Silos Ribas, former director of studies at the CNMC.
"When entry restrictions are established without public interest justification, private interest is prioritised, it goes against equity," Ribas said.
"In many cases, regulations do not correspond to the basis of what needs to be regulated and increase the profits of certain producers," he said.
"There are agents who convince the legislature to regulate for their benefit. This is what guides many of the regulations in reality," said the expert. This process is known as "regulatory capture".
He gave the example of the commercial aviation sector: "It was not until the liberalisations introduced from the 1990s onwards that prices began to fall and production increased.
He also highlighted regulations in the taxi sector, "which mean a 13% price premium for the consumer, according to a study I did at the CNMC".
In any case, "regulatory capture abounds in Spain. We see it with taxis, electricity, etc. This leads to less competition, efficiency and productivity, wasted resources, maintenance of privileges and distrust in institutions", he remarked.
And in his opinion, the regulations being introduced in Spain to limit tourist accommodation "are yet another case of regulatory capture, as they are not justified from the point of view of the general interest, but are designed to block the entry of new operators, which causes harm to consumers".
"The previous LAU was a much better scenario for society. All these regulations against holiday homes do not justify the public interest", he remarked.
Furthermore, he pointed out that in order to correct certain externalities generated by mass tourism, "the best mechanism to restrict the entry of tourists would be to raise the entry tax, not to establish regulations against holiday homes. But for the profits of certain hotel companies, reducing competition is the best way", he concluded.
Will hoteliers, holiday homes and residents be able to coexist in harmony in Spain?
In the opinion of Juan Franch Fluxà, professor of tourism contracting at the University of the Balearic Islands and academic coordinator of the Congress, vocational housing has become a "fundamental sector in the structure of our tourism offer".
"No one doubts its economic impact, its strength as a lever of change in the face of seasonality or its influence on the reputation and quality of a destination," he adds.
Ibiza: holiday housing requests to extend the ceiling of 21,000 beds.
"Tourism is our main industry and both the hotel and non-hotel sectors require regulations (state, regional and local) that allow them to act with legal certainty, efficiency, respect for general interests and, above all, for the territory that sustains tourist activity," stresses this expert.
For this reason, Juan Franch considers that in this debate "it is necessary to provide consensus and constructive arguments", whether to talk about the difficulties of access to housing or sustainable tourism.
"In the face of the tourism-phobia that spreads or of measures marked by the restriction, the Congress of Holiday Homes has always been developed in positive", emphasizes the coordinator of the conference.
For that reason, Juan Franch emphasizes, the main idea of the congress "has been the search of the difficult balance that must be promoted from the administration, but also by the own practices of a sector in which owners, platforms, property managers and marketers converge. There are still many challenges ahead".
