Alicante city is expected to pass a range of measures to crack down on tourist flats today – just days before a planned protest against Airbnb and ‘drunk tourism’.
In a rare moment of cross-party consensus, Alicante’s PP-led city council and the opposition PSOE have struck a deal to tighten regulations on tourist housing.
At the heart of the agreement is a moratorium (temporary ban) on new tourist apartments in the city.
The legislation will also forbid converting commercial businesses on the ground floor into tourist lets in specific neighbourhoods.
It follows protests over the iconic 80 Mundos bookstore being bought by a wealthy family with a view to turn it into holiday lets. The backlash has inspired an anti-tourism march, scheduled for this Friday.
Legal holiday rentals will also now be listed publicly on the municipal tourism website before the year’s end.
The PSOE has backed the moratorium in exchange for a package of measures aimed at tackling both housing shortages and illegal rentals.
These include granting the city direct inspection powers over unlicenced tourist flats by the end of the year, and a push to force construction or renovation on vacant urban plots to boost local housing supply.
A joint technical committee, with representation from across the tourism sector, will be created to crack down on illegal accommodation and level the playing field.
Socialist spokeswoman Ana Barcelo said: ‘The situation in Alicante cannot be delayed any further. It is urgent to reach agreements to alleviate the problem of access to housing.
‘Focusing solely on tourist apartment blocks would have been a missed opportunity to comprehensively address this problem.
‘In a city where the population has grown by 10,000 people in the last year, it is necessary to build new housing and facilitate the return of illegal tourist housing to the residential market. T
‘This can only be achieved through inspections and sanctions, which must be carried out by the City Council itself, and other measures that we have included in our proposal.’
Read more Spain news at the Spanish Eye.
