A Decree Law has been approved to regulate housing for tourist use in 262 Catalan municipalities. They are towns and cities with problems of access to housing, that already have more than 5 tourist apartments per 100 inhabitants or that meet both requirements.

These municipalities will not be able to grant licenses to open tourist apartments until they adapt their urban planning to the new Decree Law.

City councils will have to modify their urban planning to expressly allow the compatibility of tourist use with housing.

They must justify that they have sufficient land for housing intended for the habitual and permanent domicile of the resident population.
A maximum of 10 tourist apartment licenses may be granted per 100 inhabitants.
The new tourist apartments that want to be installed in these places will have to request a municipal planning license and a tourist authorization prior to opening, which will be valid for five renewable years.

What will happen to the apartments that already exist?

The owners will have five years to request the new urban planning license, counting from the entry into force of the Decree Law, or they will have to cease the activity.

In these five years, the affected municipalities will have to have modified their municipal planning and, therefore, be in a position to respond to these requests.

It is estimated that the obligation to obtain the new license will affect 95,094 existing apartments in the 262 affected municipalities.

Despite this, the owners may ask the city council for an extension of five more years if they prove that they cannot compensate for the property losses. The five-year transitional regime, and the eventual extension of another five years, will operate as a compensation mechanism.

Tourist apartments and permanent homes

The appearance of the phenomenon of apartments for tourist use is one of the causes of the decrease in the number of homes that are rented as permanent accommodation. This is because the apartments for tourist use are not newly built, but rather existing accommodations that change destination.

That is why the Government adopts urgent measures, through this Decree Law, to prevent an increase in changes of use in tourist apartments specifically in those areas where access to housing already usually presents problems.

DIVERSITY OF OPINIONS. In response to what was an unexpected announcement arising from an ordinary meeting of the Government, the reactions of the mayors of the region have been different depending on the idiosyncrasy of the municipality. In the smaller and less touristy towns, such as Cantallops, they view the decree favorably.

The mayor, Joan Sabartés, even remembers that “not too long ago we were talking that we would have to do something,” because “many people want to make the house for tourist use, but we started with four or five and now there is a pilot. That’s why we already wanted to regulate it with a limit. Because what matters is that the house belongs to the people who come to live, not with this system.

On the other hand, the largest and most touristic municipalities consider that the widespread imposition of this new rule will be a great obstacle for their economies. From Llançà, for example, the mayor, Nuria Escarpanter, believes that “this should have been approached differently” so as not to violate “local autonomy.” «Each municipality is and has a very different reality. Therefore, if this regulation is applied in this way, I believe that there may be a very important territorial imbalance, because it may affect you, but perhaps in the municipality on the other side…”

Furthermore, she adds that the changes will generate a negative impact on the economy of the area, because “Llançà is a tourist town that needs to offer these places.” And despite admitting that they have to be regulated, she believes that it is “the municipality itself” that has to do it based on “what is best for it.”
And the mayor of Puerto de la Selva, Josep Maria Cervera, expresses himself in the same sense, also criticizing the attempt to “apply the same medicine for all diseases, and for those who do not have the disease.” Cervera warns that the new regulation could mean the end of the economic model of his town, which has almost no primary or industrial sector, and which lives entirely off tourism.

Currently, Port de la Selva has 621 registered tourist apartments. And “according to this, in optimal conditions we could have 50, and 100 at most,” says Cervera, who adds: “Tell me who decides which 521 they have to tell that they have run out,” clarifying that it is not about from large holders, but from families who have invested their savings for years.

THE SECTOR, AGAINST. The Generalitat attributes the change to the fact that “the appearance of the phenomenon of apartments for tourist use is one of the causes of the decrease in the number of homes that are rented as permanent accommodation.” But the sector does not agree. In fact, the president of the Tourist Apartment Association (ATA) in the Girona regions, Esther Torrent, recalls that “there are 10% of empty apartments and tourist apartments only represent 2% of the housing stock in Catalonia.”

Torrent warns that the municipalities of the Costa Brava “will have to eliminate between 40 and 60% of the apartments” that have a license in force today, and assures that this limitation will have an impact on other establishments in the sector such as the catering, commerce or leisure and nautical activities.

Furthermore, from Llançà Escarpanter says that what he finds “most criticizable” is “that there was no consultation, in this case in the municipalities, to see if this was really good for us or not, nor for the sector, which is a fundamental part” . And based on this, several associations (the ATA, the Girona Tourism Board, the FOEG, the Chamber of Commerce or the APIO College of Girona) held a joint press conference on Friday to alert the Government that the new regulations may entail the loss of up to 5,000 jobs in the Girona district. They assure that the closure of apartments will have a negative economic impact on businesses and restaurants, because the regulations may lead to the loss of up to 500,000 visitors.

The associations also criticize the proposal for “the same medicine for everyone” because they believe that the reality of cities like Barcelona is very different from that of towns like Colera. And they exemplify this by explaining that the limits proposed by the regulation indicate that in Figueres, for example, there could be 4,709 HUTs, when currently there are only 299 registered (in the case of the capital the problem is housing). And the Catalan Federation of Tourist Apartments is studying taking “the legal route” against the decree.

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