Local government in Seville will cut the water supply to tourist flats operating into the Andalusian city without licences. This comes amid a growing anti-tourism movement in Spain and follows local and regional authorities cracking down on tourist rental accommodation in major cities across the country.
In Barcelona, mayor Jaume Collboni recently announced the Catalan capital would revoke the licence of more than 10,000 tourist apartments in the city. Short-term tourist rental accommodation like Airbnb and Booking.com are widely blamed for inflating rental prices in Spanish cities.
Now the mayor of Seville José Luis Sanz has confirmed that the town hall will have agreed with the Junta de Andalucía a series of measures to crackdown and discourage illegal tourist rentals.
✅ Ponemos en marcha diez medidas para acabar con las viviendas turísticas ilegales. Algunas, como:??
— José Luis Sanz (@jlsanzalcalde) August 12, 2024
? Cortar el agua a las ilegales y sancionar a los titulares reincidentes.
? Solicitar la retirada de 715 licencias que incumplen la normativa.
? Revisar una a una las… pic.twitter.com/lo5J9ERT5b
Perhaps most eye-catchingly among these is that the local water company Emasesa could cut water supplies to properties operating as tourist accommodation without the proper licences.
READ ALSO: Can Barcelona really ban all Airbnbs?
According to Sanz, local government is planning "a series of measures to control and inspect the properties for tourist use" in order to “act with zero tolerance towards tourist apartments that operate irregularly. More control and more firmness in sanctions to put an end to illegal apartments in Seville after years of looking the other way.”
There is no official data on the number of unlicensed tourist flats operating in the Andalusian capital, but a report by the Sevilla Tourism Office published by El Correo de Andalucía recently estimated that there could be as many as 8,000 in the southern city.
Many are located in the casco antiguo (old town or historic centre) or in the picturesque neighbourhood of Triana, which sits on the other side of the Guadalquivir river. City council figures estimate that tourist flats already account for more than 10 percent of the total housing stock in those areas, though in certain popular enclaves of the old town it's far higher.
The town hall also intends to freeze the granting of new tourist accommodation licences in these areas, but have so far been unable to pass the legislation due to political parties (from both the far-left and far-right) rejecting the idea because they don't believe it goes far enough.
Many in the city are now calling for a total moratorium on tourist rentals like the ones recently approved in Valencia and Granada.
READ ALSO: Valencia to crack down on tourist flats in historic old town
The town hall is also moving forward with a review of existing tourist flats in the city. So far it has found at least 715 flats that break regulations that force tourists rentals to have a separate entrance if they are on the second floor of the building or above.
However, some in the city aren't satisfied with the pace with which the town hall is moving. El País reports that the review process is currently inspecting just 10 apartments per week - a pace that would mean it would take inspectors almost nearly a decade to check them all.
In July, several lockboxes containing the keys of holiday rental apartments in Seville were reportedly covered in faeces, one of the latest anti-mass tourism messages sent out by disgruntled locals in Spain.
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