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Date Published: 08/02/2023

ARCHIVED - Malaga city centre has more tourist lets than people for the first time ever

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There are currently ten times as many holiday apartments as children in Malaga centre

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Malaga city centre has more tourist lets than people for the first time ever

In the centre of Malaga, there are now more tourist rentals than inhabitants. According to the most recent census in 2021, if each of the district’s 4,260 registered citizens rented an apartment through Airbnb, there would still be a staggering 518 rooms left over.

The Costa del Sol is undoubtedly one of Spain’s most popular tourist destinations, but in recent years Malaga city has become saturated with holiday rentals, which has drastically limited the number of properties available to residents and hiked rental prices way up.

The Andalucian capital is not alone in this problem either. Just this week, the Supreme Court of Madrid ruled that no new tourist accommodation licences would be granted in Palma de Mallorca, and the rest of the Balearic Islands are trying to reduce the number of foreign visitors in 2023, period.

Right now, there are 4,778 vacation rentals available in Malaga centre, while only 429 children under the age of 16 are registered in the same area. That means there are 10 tourist apartments for every youngster living within the limits of the centre.

The mayor of Malaga, Francisco de la Torre, has insisted that the community needs to put a cap on short-term holiday lets: “There are many tourist accommodations and we do not want to add more, we are going to see how we can regulate it, but you can always turn it around.”

Echoing recent sentiments from the Balearic and Canary Islands, Mr de la Torre added that Malaga needs to focus on quality over quantity.

Despite the misgivings of the mayor, developers are still flocking to the area and in recent months, several licences have been granted by the Urban Planning Management for builders to turn old properties into holiday flats. Just last week, two buildings on Plaza de La Merced was converted into 15 tourist apartments.

Furthermore, the Association of Tourist Housing and Apartment Professionals of Andalusia (Avvapro) has dismissed claims that an excess of tourist rentals is pushing property prices up, claiming instead that the blame lies with “the exogenous factor of the foreigner who comes to Malaga and pays 20% more for the houses because he has a salary much higher than that of the man from Malaga."

In any case, the solution is far from straightforward, since the mayor insists that he “cannot do anything without regional regulation” that would cap the number of tourist licences granted in central Malaga.

The local government, he said, has repeatedly tried to put a stop to new developments, but the means to do so is “not in our hands”.

See also: Heavy rainfall and hailstorms in Malaga this week

Image: Freepik

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