Valencia city council last week unanimously approved plans to crackdown on the use of residential properties as tourist housing in the historic centre, known as the Ciutat Vella or 'old town'.
This includes the popular neighbourhoods of Velluters, Pilar, Mercat, Carmen, La Seu and part of La Xerea. These central areas have the greatest concentration of tourist rental flats in the city, and council estimates suggest that 10 percent of all residences there are now holiday homes.
This follows news last month that the council would stop issuing new licences to Airbnb-style lets for a year, with the possibility to extend the measure, as rents surge past €1,000 in the city.
According to figures reported by Spanish daily El País, more than 3,500 tourist flats have opened in Valencia in the last year alone. However, in Valencia and cities across Spain, there are also many thousands of unlicensed tourist properties. It is unclear how exactly these flats can be properly regulated.
READ ALSO: Barcelona to get rid of all tourist rental flats 'by 2028'
In Valencia problem is such that all political parties in the city, including the right-wing Partido Popular and Vox, as well as left-wing parties Compromís and PSPV, voted in favour of starting the process, which will take more than a year.
It comes amid a wave of crackdown on tourist rentals across Spain. In Barcelona last week, city mayor Jaume Collboni shocked many by announcing that the local government intends to ‘eliminate’ 10,000 tourist apartments in the Catalan capital by 2029. These apartments, he said, would be converted into much needed affordable housing for locals.
Surging rent prices are a problem in cities across Spain. In Valencia, the council authorities seem to have taken inspiration from Barcelona and pledged to try and create "a model similar to that of Barcelona… so that, within four years, we can begin to eliminate all the tourist flats in our city and convert them into residential housing".
The council also wants to ban tourist flats in residential buildings entirely in the old town. "We want it to be a residential neighbourhood,” said city councillor for urban planning, Juan Giner, “and for this reason we have proposed that it is not compatible and no new tourist flats will be opened in the buildings where locals live.”
The proposals, however, would not be a total ban and do include an important exception: that new tourist accommodation will still be allowed in the old town when it is an exclusive use building (that is to say, without any residential housing) and only in the San Francesc neighbourhood and in a small part of La Xerea.
Equally, tourist properties that already have the proper licences or authorisation will be able to continue to operate, but the council’s plans mean that no new licences will be issued in the near future and no new tourist flats will be opened in residential buildings in the old town.
READ ALSO: 'It's become unliveable': Spain's Málaga plans protests against mass tourism
Anti-tourism protests have gained momentum across the country in recent months, with locals taking to the streets in Barcelona, Madrid, the Canary and Balearic Islands, and further walkouts planned in Málaga at the end of June.
Locals complain that the increasing numbers of Airbnb-style rental accommodation decreases the supply of affordable, residential housing, drives up rental prices, gentrifies local neighbourhoods and prices out locals.
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