President Armengol is insisting that government policies are addressing the problem of access to housing. Responding to questions in parliament from Laura Camargo of Podemos, the president said that the problems which residents of the islands have "suffered" are being alleviated by the government "incentivising owners to switch from holiday rental to residential letting and to be equally profitable".
Camargo was interested to know what measures the government was taking in reducing the number of tourist accommodation places, as established in the tourism law reform last year. The Podemos spokesperson referred to there being more such places in Minorca than are "supposedly" set in the legislation. She considered there to be a "lack of control" of the number of places, adding that there is no up-to-date information regarding places in Ibiza and Formentera.
Armengol explained that Minorca has "always been an exception" in terms of the number of accommodation places, saying that measures have been set in motion and that Podemos data "do not conform to reality".
In Majorca, the president observed that proof of the number of accommodation places being lowered was the fact that over the first six months following the introduction of last summer's reform, a total of 3,620 had been removed.
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I do not understand that today I read two reports from you paper. The above saying that the short term rental market has been reduced 3,620 from sites like Arbnb and then in a fresh report this morning your papers says holiday rentals reduced from 1809 from 2776,000. Its very confusing to read different reports from your paper. its unclear sometimes also how your reports are written and where do you get this information ? If you ask a non real estate person in Palma you will find that the city has less people, less cars and less mess and noise from the last two years and most of our clients have taken their properties off the websites and are renting out for a normal long term rental.
Residential letting as "equally profitable" as tourist rental? Now that really doesn't conform to reality.
I know many apartment owners, absolutely none of whom will consider long-term rentals. Most are just waiting to see how things progress with the new rental zones and licences, and will then make a decision as to whether they stay or sell.
How many of these properties will now go up for sale in the next year or two rather than the owners letting them out on long term rentals with all the legal ramifications.?