The government wants to put a stop to the way in which owners of numerous properties to rent publicise these through intermediaries for holiday rental, such as Airbnb.
This isn't currently included in the bill approved by the cabinet, so it would need to be added as an amendment during the parliamentary process. The amendment is due to come from tourism minister Biel Barceló's Més party, which is working on its drafting.
Implicit to this amendment is an intention to define how many properties one owner can legally rent out, something which may well make its way into another item of legislation - the government's housing bill. The objective would be to put an end to there being a small number of owners who control a large part of the market.
The amendment will therefore stipulate that there are restrictions on owners who will have to abide by demands for social housing. The threshold for defining "large owners" is more than ten properties.
A study by the Exceltur alliance for touristic excellence has shown that two-thirds of owners in the Balearics have more than one property. As for marketing intermediaries, Airbnb acknowledges that it hosts owners with single properties and also these large owners.
The environmentalist group Terraferida, which has been publicising the extent of what it says are Airbnb-hosted rentals in the Balearics, claims that an Airbnb representative was recently in Majorca and met a group of people who are involved in holiday rentals. Terraferida further claims that the representative advised splitting up the properties so that it would not be so evident that they belonged to the same company or individual. As an example of this large ownership, Terraferida identified a "Bettina", who offers more than 700 properties in Majorca.
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Jeff Smith,putting a comment about having a ''rather unfortunate fire'' in your apartment is not a very smart thing to do as it can be read by anybody,including the authorities and the forensic services in Majorca are as good as anywhere else,you could find yourself in prison for a very long time.
I really am bunbfounded at the shortsightedness of the spanish and balearic government. After many years of living on the island we eneded up moving away as sinply never knew where we were which is w common feeling. They seem to create such a fuss over anything now and its always for the worse. Be it renting to a house to a damn ice cream stall they have to get involved always for the worse. Fines conpletely disproprtionate to peoples wealth. Its just a full scale assault on driving people away and in times when they really need to welcome everybody and make things easy to start the economy but that will never come as it will be forever held back. Its a shame as it was the nicest place to live and the people are the best in the world but the countey will always be held back by a shortsighted government. I still own my apartment on the island and am not at a loss to what to do with it and yet now i cant rent it out, my own house? When i purchased it ten years ago nobody said one day you will not be able to rent it that will also be illegal. A complete joke. I will give it till next year to see what happens and then the only way i see out of it is a rather unfortunate fire and if thats what were driven to then so be it. I tried for years but have given up the dream and have taken my money and bouht in another country far more welcoming for investment and forward thinking
over the last few years street entertainers have been banned. noise being to loud banned. holiday room tax. cutting down on holiday accommodation. And know stopping the youngsters from enjoying them selves with heavy fines just one question how are the government going to manage with on income after the holiday makers stop coming to your island
As long as tax is paid on earnings I don't see the problem. Let the consumers decide where they wish to stay. These will be visitors whose spending enriches local business within the island's communities rather than sticking it into the pockets of the hoteliers' consortium which has the politicians completely under its thumb.