Short term rental regulations will cost Spain billions and jobs
Mallorca cracking down on holiday lets
The housing problem is driving the anti-mass tourism movement. | Majorca Daily Bulletin reporter
Palma21/01/2025 11:47
The regulation on short-term rentals in Spain puts 30,000 million euros at risk, 2% of GDP, and 400,000 jobs, according to a report by Oxford Economics with data from Eurostat and Airbnb. The rental platform has denounced that the authorities have drawn up their regulations “without taking into account important considerations”, such as location (rural or urban) or the type of activity (occasional or dedicated).
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The solution is a Government awareness campaign on-line to advise prospective renters that they should never rent any property without first seeing a valid authenticated certificate of occupancy issued by the local authority (landlords are invited to apply for certification). And to pair this with a Government look-up table on-line where prospective tenants can double-check the property that they are considering renting by entering the address and checking that it is approved. Such a measure is a win-win for all. The prospective visitor wins because the certificate confirms that the rental is legal and genuine and approved for renting. The authorities and the locals win by ensuring uncertified illegal properties are removed from the market. Start this initiative now and it could be in place for the 2025 Summer season.
Ok, maybe it's true that illegal holiday lets generate 3 billion in incoming cash. But they don't even know how many exist, so that's more likely just a guess. However, many of the illegal lets are pretty down market and dumpy. Many are run by dodgy cartels and some are just plain scams. They have to be cheap because they're illegal, and attracting cheap seekers is always problematic. And they sure as hell don't pay taxes on the income. So, if there's that much money involved, perhaps a different school of thought might be wise; Perhaps a programme for registration and licencing, requiring some basic quality and safety standards, and of course, declaring the income and paying taxes on it? Oh, we already have that. But here in the balearics, it's no longer possible to get a licence. So, back to square one. Lather, rinse, repeat.