Spain - Balearics - Majorca Discussion Forum

Discussions regarding holidays in Majorca.
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There was a similar thing about this in Lanzarote a couple of years ago , urban letting laws are set in mainland Spain and tourism laws at a local level , these laws can contradict each other and be interpreted by lawyers in different ways !! I'm guessing that at a local level the authorities want tax from income by people letting the property they own , and owners don't want to pay tax ! The local authorities want letting but in an organised way , they can't just ban letting and let the local tourist market just be hotels who most likely have AI as the local business owners of cafes , restaurants and bars would be affected , and who wants to visit a resort with only hotels ? It's about having your property designated for letting to tourists and paying the appropriate fees / tax .
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I saw that as well Andy, its an area which is bound to become subject to some interpretation..
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"I'm guessing that at a local level the authorities want tax from income by people letting the property they own , and owners don't want to pay tax ! The local authorities want letting but in an organised way , they can't just ban letting and let the local tourist market just be hotels who most likely have AI as the local business owners of cafes , restaurants and bars would be affected , and who wants to visit a resort with only hotels ? It's about having your property designated for letting to tourists and paying the appropriate fees / tax."

Nail - Hammer- Head :tup
The hotel associations consider this to be unfair competition, and who can blame them when they have to pay 'eye watering' amounts of money to be granted a tourist license for their buildings.? And it's not just hotels, tourist apartment blocks/complex's have to jump through the same hoops.

In Europe, they have to comply with European legislation with regards to things such as safety, IE: safety glass, fire escapes, fire extinguishers, emergency lighting, fire doors, floor plans and pool marking depths...and the list goes on.

Then you have an owner who sub-lets and he/she hasn't got a blade of safety glass throughout the apartment, and it has a kitchen with one electric point and an extension cable/block, running 4 high voltage appliances from it. (been there and done it with the electricity set-up).

Well, that's the owner's problem until they sub-let, and then it becomes someone else's problem. So, it's not just about collecting the appropriate taxes.
Problems arise for those who buy apartments in a residential/block area and start sub-letting them out to tourists, but they (tourists) don't have to get up at 6 am to start serving breakfast in the nearby hotel @ 7-30 am.

Personally, I see this as a good thing, and you're right Andy, the Canary Islands had a crack down on these practises a few years ago.....and Andalusia did last year.

The article/link below is very informative, and I can't see Palma deviating from it very much, if at all.
It tells you that the websites advertising your apartment are no longer a safe place, and that you are rather deluded if you think your advertisement will be overlooked, just because it is submerged amongst many.

The solution.? Stop illegally sub-letting your property, comply with the safety regulations, get a tourist license and pay the appropriate taxes.
IMO: Then, and only then, should you be allowed to advertise your property with a genuine tourist (and traceable) compliance certificate attached.

I have sympathy for the tourists caught up in this, who have made bookings in good faith .........For the greedy owners I have no sympathy.

https://www.spanishpropertyinsight.com/2016/02/10/andalusias-holiday-rental-decree/

Sanji x
  • Edited by Sanji 2017-04-06 17:37:49
    Typo errors
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Great link Sanji. This part is interesting:-

Air conditioning unit affixed in every bedroom including living room (as a fixed fixture, not as a portable device unit) when the property is offered between the months of May and September (inclusive). Landlords will be given one year to adapt the rooms to this requirement as from the time this law is passed (11th of May 2017).
• When properties are let during the winter season (October through to April, inclusive) a heater must be made available in every bedroom including living room (as a fixed fixture, not as a portable device). Landlords will be given one year to adapt the rooms to this requirement as from the time this law is passed (11th of May 2017).
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Very interesting link from Sanji , and I think it's good to see regulations being made to provide a good standard for tourists renting holiday accommodation , I agree with the authorities setting these regulations which I'm sure in the long term will be beneficial to Spanish resorts , obviously tourism is very important to their economy and I'm sure high standards and good regulations will cement their position of being a firm favourite for tourists , quite a few destinations in recent years have suffered incidents and Spain and it's islands feel like a safe bet . I don't really get the thinking behind the mayor of Palma reasons about outlawing holiday homes because the high number of tourists means locals can't find a place to live as a result of property prices surging . If locals work in a tourist dependent trade they might lose work if there are less tourists .
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If you lived in an area with a high number of holiday/second homes you might think differently , Andy, especially in the situation where the jobs created by tourism don't pay enough to pay the mortgage needed in an area where house prices have been forced up by people buying 2nd homes or holiday lets as an investment. For example, in the Lake District the average price of a small terraced house last year was £175,000, for a semi £216,000 and a detached £350,000. In other words you need a household income of £60,000 in order to pay the mortgage and have been able to save a minimum of £17,500 for the deposit on wven the smallest of homes. Few jobs in the tourist industry in the area, being mainly in retail or hotel and catering are going to generate enough money, even in a two income household to make that easily affordable for young couples to get on the bottom of the property ladder in a terraced 2 up 2 down. And people working in agriculture are going to be in a similar position.

This is why many planning authorities in very scenic areas or where there is a high number of 2nd homes are only granting permission for new builds if there is a clause in the deeds which prevents them being sold as 2nd homes. But even that doesn't stop prices being forced up by incoming retirees downsizing and having a lot of equity they can put down compared to a new young couple. And of course what people buying for holiday homes don't aways realise either is that if the locals are priced out of buying in an area then they are more likely to move away to somewhere where the wages enable you to afford the house prices. When that happens you end up with a resort or village where there are fewer and fewer locals lef tto provide services to the tourists because all the young people are leaving.

Plus I can vouch for how even just a small number of holiday lets can change the character of an area. A street close to me has some holiday let homes on it and you can tell instantly which ones they are - they are the ones with the concreted/paved over front garden to make it low maintenance, the ones that even mid-week have people noisily sitting out in the back garden until all hours doing the things most of us like to do on holiday but make life very difficult for the young families next door trying to get kids to sleep for school in the mroning. My immediate neighbours and I were very worried when a cottage on our quiet lane was bought and turned into a let - life became hell for a few weeks until the owner who also lives locally received a deputation from us. In the end she decided that using it as a holiday let for mainly male only groups of golfers wasn't going to be worth the hassle from us and the environmental health noise monitors. I doubt that she liked being pointed out as the person who owned the house that was causing all the trouble much either! Holiday lets in an otherwise settled residential neighbourhood can be absolute hell so I can understand why the authorities in Palma are trying to clamp down and regulate the holiday letting market.
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I'm not sure about the new builds in Palma as not visited for several years, but there's several Spanish resorts that look very unsightly due to half built accommodation.

I can only assume they had planning permission, then ran out of money & are now doomed to be a blot on the landscape with no-one benefitting.
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I would like to have bought a home in the lovely quiet village where I grew up , but it was too expensive , I did manage to buy a home about 20 mins from there though , and it's good to know I can swap my mid Kent housing estate small terraced for a detached in the Lake District . I'm all for regulating holiday lets and making sure they benefit local communities , but the mayor needs to come up with creative ways to help local people than just saying he is going to outlaw holiday homes which are beneficial to the local market if regulated properly . Market forces affect everyone wherever they live , practical solutions are needed rather than just populist statements .
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'Mid-Kent' - there's the significant difference. Plenty of well paid employment opportunities within commuting distance but would you be able to earn as much in Ambleside or Keswick? When I moved up here (the east coast of Scotland but not within commuting distance of Aberdeen) in the late 1980s I was one of those incomers who benefitted from the housing boom in England as the owner of a small terraced house that had more than doubled in value in 4 years. It meant that I could afford something much bigger than I had before (because house prices up here had not gone through that boom) but living up here where the two major sources of employment are the public sector and tourism, has made me realise that market forces are not the best way of ensuring that people are able to afford a roof over their heads on the wages they are able to earn.
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The difficulty of people trying to get on the property ladder is the same wherever you're looking to buy . There might be the possibility of well paid employment in " Mid Kent " but a basic 2 up 2 down is pushing over 250k , so it's relative to a purchaser in the Lake District in that you would need a 25k deposit and 85k household income , different amounts , same problem , but different market pressures . Market forces are what they are , they force prices up and in some markets prices are forced down . Back to the mayor of Palma .....Sensible and balanced regulation is the way , not just banning , especially when you don't have the authority either .
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"Back to the mayor of Palma .....Sensible and balanced regulation is the way , not just banning , especially when you don't have the authority either ."

He might be jumping the gun by not waiting for the draft to be passed in parliament by the government of the Balearic Islands, but because of the way the autonomous provinces are structured, those cities with more than 250,000 residents and provincial capitals, they have their own system and the Mayor has the highest power and alongside him a Governing board. So, yes he definitely has the authority.

However, one size doesn't fit all when you're passing a law which will cover all the islands, for example, while there might be a problem in the city of Palma, in another part of the island, such as in the north, there might not be any issues with sub- letting to tourists which affects the housing situation for the natives, because the resorts are seasonal and the flights reduce during the low season bringing less tourists anyway.
Another scenario is that there might only be a couple of hotels in the resort, and its survival depends on rental properties, so, it would be madness to implement a ban.

So the best way to accommodate the various situations is to bring the enforcement down to the individual town halls to decide whether to implement the law or not.
Imo: There'll be an option: either regulating them, banning them or zoning them, I cannot see a blanket law to ban being the only option being passed.... However, Palma's Mayor may take the ban option if the situation is critical.

I've read enough Spanish news to come to the conclusion that they can often contradict themselves, for example....
They introduce an eco-tax because of environmental issues caused by tourists.
They want more upmarket boutique hotels for the wealthy Germans and they want more cruise ships.... the bigger the cruise ship, the better.

Sanji x


  • Edited by Sanji 2017-04-09 23:04:19
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