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Date Published: 17/04/2024

Communities of owners in Spanish holiday hotspots are voting to ban Airbnbs

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The Spanish government is also looking at legislation to limit the effect of tourist rentals on the housing market

Communities of owners in Spanish holiday hotspots are voting to ban Airbnbs

The number of tourist rental apartments, such as Airbnbs, are on the rise in many parts of Spain, catering to a public – both domestic and international – who search for affordable alternatives to hotels when they go on vacation to sunny Spain.

However, the phenomenal rise of these properties that are only let out in the short-term is leading to a shortfall in the amount of long-term rental properties available and a subsequent rise in the monthly cost of renting such apartments.

Property owners who rent out their apartments can earn much more by renting them out to tourists on a nightly or weekly basis rather than renting to tenants who want to live there long-term. Some property owners choose to rent to students or teachers from September to June and then use the more lucrative, busier summer months to rent to tourists. If they want to rent out their apartments as holiday lets, they have to register them as such, otherwise it is illegal.

As well as contributing to a lack of rental supply and rising rental prices, the practice of offering 9-, 10- or 11-month rental contracts also serves to deprive tenants of protections that ensure their right to housing that were brought in by the 2023 Housing Law in Spain and which, for the most part, only take hold after 12 months of renting.

In Murcia, as in several other places in Spain, the ‘comunidades de propietarios’ – the residents’ associations which oversee the affairs of any apartment block or residential community – are taking steps to limit the number of tourist apartments and Airbnbs.

To do this, they are holding votes on whether or not to reform the statutes of the community to expressly prohibit this practice and stop holiday lets from being located in those communities.

The Minister for Housing in Spain, Isabel Rodríguez, has come down in favour of limiting tourist lets in cities with the most severe housing shortages, and the government intends to work with tourism authorities to try to establish legal restrictions on short-term holiday lets.

According to data from Murcia’s Regional Ministry of Tourism, at the moment there are 7,531 properties registered as being for tourist use. Compare this with the 4,700 estimated by Exceltur in 2023, which provide room for 38,412 people, and there is either a great disparity in their calculations or there has been a massive boom in registered tourist rental apartments in the first four months of 2024.

To contrast, the numbers of people who can be accommodated by Murcia’s hotel – the number of bed spaces – is 23,000. While the opening of new hotel establishments is occurring in drips and drabs, the number of tourist flats continues to soar and has increased by 14,533 beds in one year.

While many of these flats belong to private owners who rent them out via platforms like Airbnb, in other cases the property is in the hands of investors and funds that acquire all the properties in a building to use all of them for tourist rentals.

Not only is the proliferation of tourist lets pushing up prices for long-term rentals, but many people who have to live near tourist flats complain that they bring noisy revellers, stag dos, hen dos and other groups of people who do not respect the peace and quiet expected in residential buildings and complexes.

Spokesman for the Association of Property Administrators of Murcia, Antonio Ruiz, pointed out that any community of owners wishing to change its statutes to outlaw properties destined for tourist rental purposes must have a three-fifths majority at a meeting of the community. In addition, any modification of the community bylaws must be registered in the Land Registry in order for it to be legally valid.

While that is an action homeowners can choose to take to protect their communities, the Murcia regional government is not planning to take any additional action against tourist lets for the moment.

According to the Regional Ministry of Tourism, “The segment of tourist accommodation is essential to strengthen and expand the supply of hotel facilities in the region, especially during periods of high occupancy.”

Some parts of Spain have seen backlashes from locals against the influx of tourism, with graffiti telling foreigners to ‘go home’ and protests against unbridled tourism occurring in popular vacation spots like the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands.

The Exceltur tourist association in Spain has estimated that tourism will contribute more than 200 billion euros to the Spanish economy in 2024, an 8.6% increase on last year and first time it will break the 200-billion barrier.

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