The zoning decision also takes into account the vote taken at a council meeting last summer. The residents federation in Palma called for prohibition at that meeting and it was approved. Mayor Antoni Noguera says that the decision is one for the future of Palma, calling it pioneering and believing it will set a trend for "understanding the habitable city".
The town hall is following provisions in the government's legislation which allow island councils and the town hall to make zoning decisions and which also include the possibility of banning apartment rentals. The zoning in Palma is scheduled to be definitively approved in July.
PSOE, Hila's party, had been reluctant to go along with Més and Podemos and introduce a blanket ban, but Hila expains that PSOE councillors finally agreed to it through "loyalty" to the vote taken in July. He adds that limits on holiday rental apartment are being adopted in all European cities where there is high tourism pressure. Noguera notes that there is "nothing worse than a city where residents have to leave because they can't pay rents".
By contrast with apartments, holiday rentals will be permitted in stand-alone properties (and presumably semi-detached ones as well) anywhere in the city except on rustic land, around the airport and on industrial estates.
Habtur, formerly Aptur, the holiday rentals association, issued a statement yesterday expressing its profound disagreement with the decision. It says that the city will suffer as a consequence of the effect on incomes of apartment owners and because the complementary sector (restaurants, shops, etc.) will be harmed. The association warns that there could therefore be job losses.
It adds that since legislation was introduced last summer, the "non-regulated" supply of holiday rentals has decreased by a third but that the cost of renting has gone up by ten per cent. Tourism is not therefore responsible for this increase.
Habtur believes that the town hall is governing "for a few" and is neglecting a significant part of the population by refusing to even talk to the association about such important regulations.
11 comments
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Wow! Double whammy for the greedy, illegal renters. Well done Palma Council. Hotels for Tourists, flats for residents/locals and legal workers.
at home I maybe eat out once a week sometimes less depending on work on holiday pretty much every meal every day is the norm ,I'm sure this will be the same for many, only this year there will not be so many ! and the hoteliers wont mind one bit if the restaurants or bars or shops struggle, nor oworry about the unemployment this brings. personally I like to see new places opening and people trying to make a future for themselves with a new restaurant/ shop.service etcwhile were on it if they really did want to lmit the number of tourists why not reduce the numbe of guests staying in a hotel ?
To Ged: The article in El Pais (How can Spain ensure the survival of its world-beating tourism industry?) did't discuss shops, etc but the pressure of having too many tourists in relation to the population. Hotels don't compete directly with shops and entrepreneurs. If the latter should be protected then it would be more efficient to ban all the foreign companies on the island, not permit shopping centers with a lot of multinational store chains, etc.
The vast majority of the 11.7 to 1 ratio will be in hotels RBMM. The very hotels that suck up the majority of the profits to be had from the tourists at the expense of the native shop owners and entrepreneurs that the government should be helping.
Residents and workers should be given priority to rent apartments close to their work location and at reasonable costs. Studies confirm that a city does not thrive on transient visitors, it’s the local populous that build a sustainable neighbourhood. Mallorca visitors are adequately catered for withougreedy apartment owners and letting companies cash in on raising rents. Congratulations Palma council for having the courage to put residents first.
I think that we are in a transition period and that more may come. Politicians had to do something, but they waited too long and now drastic measures are taken. To quote from El Pais "Overall there were 1.6 foreign tourists for every Spaniard in 2016, but that rate goes up to 2.4 tourists for every resident of Catalonia, 4.1 for every inhabitant of Barcelona, 6.3 for every resident of the Canary Islands and 11.7 for every native of the Balearic Islands."
Whatever your views on all these confusing new laws, I think we should be united in one thing: this should go down in history as THE prime example of how to be a headless chicken Balearic politician. Shameful.
So people who have been dependent to some extent on renting their apartment in order to help with its upkeep will no longer be able to do so. They will therefore have to offer their apartment on longer term rents. They will however put these apartments on the market at a rental rate near to the previous rental for tourists, because that's how their finances will have been arranged. With these going on the market a higher rate will be viewed by others will property on the market as an opportunity to raise their rental. In effect this could result in apartment rental in Palma going up not down.
Move with the times and embrace a up and coming industry that will give the all inclusive hotels a run for their money or come up with a lame excuse to protect the back pockets. The taxi drivers are the same. Everyone shouts about too many cars on the roads, hire car saturation, not enough public transport. In the mean time the taxi drivers break any plans that may harm their profit and have done for 30 odd years. Someone in office needs to get a grip, seriously.
"Yeah we don't want those nasty tourists here spending their money in our major city. Just stay at home and send us a cheque instead!" I wonder what's coming next - maybe ban tourists from public transport, shops, hire cars, and no food or drink to be sold to them without a licence that costs €2,000 and takes two years to process? Mark my words - although I partly jest it won't be long before something else equally ridiculous hits the statute books. AND in the interests of equality I suggest that Palma's hotels should not from this point on be allowed to accept visiting tourists.