There was more than a doubling of the number of holiday rental properties registered with the Balearic tourism ministry last year. In 2015 there were 1,270, while in 2016 the number rose to 2,670.
The demand for registration increased significantly when the draft for holiday rentals' legislation was made public, suggesting that owners were concerned about there being greater restrictions once the legislation is passed. Some owners may also have been worried about the increased levels of fines that the legislation envisages if properties aren't registered. (The properties in question do not, it needs stressing, include apartments.)
The activities of tourism ministry inspectors last year led to 106 proceedings being taken out as the result of 148 inspections. There was a specific plan in 2016 to go after unregulated properties, which resulted in a greatly increased number of proceedings, even if the number of inspections was lower than in 2015.
Owners who wish to register a property - this means at present the likes of villas and houses and not apartments - have to make a declaration to the tourism ministry and pay 25 euros per place. Owners then have to wait for an inspector to visit, which can be more than a year, given the demand for registrations. The 2012 tourism law didn't specify a limit to the number of places, but the new legislation is expected to do so. Tourists staying in registered properties do of course have to pay the tourist tax.
No comments
To be able to write a comment, you have to be registered and logged in
Currently there are no comments.