The Malaga City Council is once again moving to stop the growth of tourist apartments in the city. The Councilor for Urban Planning, Carmen Casero, has announced the ban on register new vacation rentals in 43 neighborhoods of the capital of Malaga. These are the areas in which, at least, eight out of every hundred homes are dedicated to hosting tourists, according to a study commissioned by the council itself. It is the second municipal movement after in June it established the requirements that limited the granting of new licenses. The new measure is expected to come into force in November after passing through the municipal plenary session. “This is not the end, it is the beginning,” stressed Casero, who has not ruled out future steps to continue restricting the sector. “We will continue doing things,” he insisted. According to the registry of the Junta de Andalucía, the city of Malaga currently has more than 12,800 tourist homes.
The standard is based on a study commissioned by the Malaga City Council and carried out by the consultancy Espacio Común, with the aim of knowing in detail the situation of holiday accommodation in the city. The 417 neighborhoods of the city have been x-rayed based on numerous aspects, from accommodation places to the increase in tourist licenses or applicants for protected housing. The result has indicated that the capital has an average of 4.5% of tourist apartments in its residential park, but also that there are 43 neighborhoods where they exceed 8%. “Beyond what is desirable” according to the variables of the study, which has not been made public. “We will not allow even one more home in them,” Casero highlighted. The rest of the capital will be analyzed periodically to ensure that it does not exceed the established limit. “The surgery of municipal geography is very important because decisions have to be made that are differentiated,” said the mayor, who has also pointed out the construction of some 3,000 officially protected homes. A thousand in progress, a thousand in tender and another thousand later.
The councilor explained that the decree published at the beginning of the year by the Junta of Andalusia that gave jurisdiction to the community councils to limit or prohibit the installation of tourist apartments. As a result of this document, the Urban Planning Department made a first decision, that of restricting the new licenses to properties that have independent access and those included in residential blocks dedicated exclusively to tourism. The rule was announced in June, but with retroactive effect until the day of publication of the regional decree, already in February. Since then, the City Council has asked the autonomous Administration to cancel some 1,500 licenses – according to municipal data -, precisely those that have been processed since then without meeting the new requirements.
The second decision, the one announced today, will come into force in the first days of November, once it passes through the Municipal Plenary Session next Wednesday, October 30. There it will be approved—the PP of Francisco de la Torre has a majority—and will be sent for publication in the Official Gazette of the Province. “We have gone as quickly as possible taking into account that the Board’s decree is from February,” stressed Casero, who emphasized that the first measures to contain tourist homes arrived in June. “I don’t know if any city council acted before. “Seville approved the limitations in two neighborhoods and it was last week,” he noted in reference to the municipal ban on new licenses in most of the neighborhoods of the historic center and Triana and the establishment of a maximum of 10% of tourist accommodation compared to residential ones. “Could it have been done before? They should have asked the parties that governed the Board,” said Casero. Since January 2019, his party, the PP, has done so with an absolute majority since 2022.
“Very serious damage to the economy”
“Our impression is that they are acting hastily. They have not, as far as we know, heard from anyone in the sector about what better regulation would look like. We believe that it will not have the effect that they expect regarding the price of rents, but it can do very serious damage to the economy and is an attack on people’s freedom,” stressed Juan Cubo, president of the Association of Tourist Housing and Apartment Professionals of Andalusiain the Cope. “It’s a surprise,” he stressed. “We once again put citizens at the forefront of solving problems that our politicians and administrations have generated due to a lack of housing planning for decades,” he stressed.
As happens in much of the country —The recent demonstration in Valencia is an example of this.—, housing is the main topic of debate in Malaga for years and has accelerated after the pandemic. Reports about the accelerated growth in the rental or purchase price of real estate continue and, for example, the price per square meter has doubled in just a decade, according to Idealista. The house is already the first concern of the people of Malagaas reflected in the data from the latest Malaga Social Survey promoted by the university and which also maintained that 72% of the population considers that tourism has had a “negative” or “very negative” impact in the availability of affordable housing. Last June some 15,000 people took to the streets under the motto Malaga to live, not to survive. The demonstration was promoted by the Tenants’ Union, which has once again called for a new proposal for next November 9.
“All Malaga residents are not poor”
The new municipal measure comes just one day after the Urban Planning councilor herself was involved in a controversy during the last commission for her area, held this Tuesday. During a debate, the spokesperson for Con Málaga, Toni Morillas, pointed out the high number of homes that are bought in Málaga at once, 50%, without the need to apply for a mortgage. He pointed out that these operations had to do with real estate speculation, but Casero responded: “There are also people from Malaga who can pay for apartments without a mortgage, all people from Malaga are not poor and not all people from Malaga have to take out a mortgage.” Statements that he ratified this Wednesday at a press conference. “I rely on data,” he noted.
