The Valencia region in southern Spain is the latest to take stringent measures against Airbnb-like holiday rentals, indicative of an increasing aversion against mass tourism. Valencia’s regional government, in charge of popular beach destinations such as Benidorm and Alicante, is planning harsh sanctions to eliminate illegal rentals, with fines up to €600,000 targeted at landlords who infringe the rules.
Nuria Montes, leading tourism authority in Valencia, remarks that holiday apartments are indeed a crucial part of the region’s economy but seeks to control and regulate their growth. The initiative, announced recently, aims primarily to obliterate illegal rentals. She claims that any form of shadowy economic activity in the realm of accommodations cannot be permitted.
Holiday rentals, like those on Airbnb in various southern European locations ranging from Venice to Lisbon, have been criticised for inviting disorderly tourists, enabling the over-saturation of tourist areas in public spaces, and inflating property costs.
However, Valencia’s approach is less extreme than Barcelona’s strategy, which includes shutting down all 10,000 Airbnb-like apartments – even those with licenses – by the end of 2028.
Valencia region, encompassing the Costa Blanca coastline from Dénia to Torrevieja, has seen licensed holiday apartments increase from 40,000 to 106,000 since 2015 reveals Ms Montes. She speculates the presence of approximately 50,000 or more unauthorized rentals in the black market, many of which are listed on online classified sites known for fraud.
These illegal apartments evade any form of control, including tax obligations, and there is uncertainty if these landlords meet their employee obligations, adds Ms Montes. Paramount to her concerns is safety, as these unregistered rentals often do not disclose guest information to the authorities, and it remains uncertain whether they adhere to safety guidelines for fires, emergencies, and evacuation strategies.
Pending approval from the regional parliament in September, a progressive scale of fines escalating to €600,000 per apartment for severe violations is to be implemented in Valencia. By the end of the year, even licensed apartments that do not provide an official 20-digit code, a requirement for property identification in Spain, will be considered illegal.
Licenses will necessitate a renewal every half-decade, with the potential for denial if the collective homeowners’ organisation has implemented regulations prohibiting vacation flats within their construction. Despite having only 11 inspectors for holiday flats, the Valencia region is set on involving local governments to enhance enforcement.
With the goal to unify scattered national laws throughout the EU, officials in Brussels passed a regulation in April necessitating short-term lease businesses to share information with commanding authorities. These regulations, scheduled to be active in May 2026, require platforms like Airbnb to frequently report updates on landlords and their lease activities to aid governments in suppressing unlawful listings.
Valencia is committed to eliminating the lease of individual rooms on platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo, as per Ms Montes. However, she does not advocate an all-out ban on vacation flats like Barcelona did. Instead, local government leaders are being encouraged to identify what suits their location best.
“Local administrations have the liberty to set restrictions such as the maximum number of residential properties for touristic use per construction or per district. These conditions should be based on explicit, verifiable criteria,” she emphasised. “They should not be indiscriminate.”
Touristic flats make up 1.8% of all available accommodations in the Valencia region, however, unoccupied homes constitute 14% of the total, she pointed out. Ms Montes stated that vacation rentals have lived harmoniously with long-term inhabitants. However, she highlighted that the emergence of platforms such as Airbnb has caused the “hotelling” of buildings and escalated the number of disputes particularly with residents in owner-occupied communities.
Ms Montes made a case against the excessive vilification of holiday flats across Spain. “People seem to be pinning every crisis, including housing shortages and increasing rents on vacation apartments,” she noticed and added, “That’s thoroughly unjust.” – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2024