What neighbors and tourists do not live in the same buildings

In Spain, for a long time, talking about housing is doing it upward prices and a pressure increasing For the pocket of families. Especially in big cities, such as Madrid, Barcelona either Malagawhere drawing is further complicated by The pressure that exercises tourist rent in the market. To tackle that challenge the capital has just endowed with A new tool: A plan that aspires to decentralize tourist floors, favor that they leave residential buildings and prevent commercial lows from being converted into vacation floors.

The question is … how will theory go from the facts?

What happened? That Madrid has just been equipped with which from now on will be its new roadmap to face one of its greatest challenges: the Tourist and Its impact in the housing market. The municipal plenary approved Wednesday, in a anger session And with the solo votes of the PP, the Plan residesthat marks a series of guidelines on where and how tourist floors can be opened from now on. From the outset, its key idea is very simple: the holiday rental will go on the one hand and the residential use for another, so that both uses do not match in the buildings of the center.

What does the plan propose? To understand it before, you have to keep in mind a key: the plan divides the capital into two. On the one hand is the central almond, The most pressured For the floors for tourists and therefore the one that most affected sees its residential market. And on the other is the outer zone, located outside the historic center. The difference is important because each area is regulated differently. It also simplifies the Special Host Plan Previous, 2019, which works on a map with three “rings”.

The changes of greater draft will be given in the first circle, that of the central almond of Madrid. The main one is that the City Council wants that from now on in that area the tourist floors will go on the one hand and those of traditional homes on the other. The plan resides expressly prohibits “dispersed tourist floors in residential buildings”, even on low floors.

In short, they will not share building in the center. In the blocks that are not destined for residential use, the thing is different. In those cases, tourist floors “without limitations” will be admitted.

Are there more news? Yes. The main one is that tourist apartments must concentrate on blocks that are dedicated exclusively to that purpose (I would not affect to the floors that already exist and have a license), but the plan resides includes more novelties. The previous norm, of 2019, allowed convert low floors In tourist apartments, which has led many center stores dedicating themselves to that use, much more profitable than commercial. The City Council Calculate that only between 2015 and 2024 have been converted into homes and tourist floors 3,306 bass. The new municipal plan wants to end that trend.

“With the plan resides, the transformation of commercial premises into tourist floors in the historic center and the transformation of premises into homes into the main tertiary roads is not allowed,” They point From the town hall, which requires that outside the historic center there will also be streets and avenues in which the reconversion of premises will be restricted in apartments for holiday rental.

And what about the offer? The idea of ​​the plan is to concentrate the tourist offer in blocks dedicated to that purpose, “decentralize” the activity and take it to areas tertiarywhere the impact on homes is therefore lower. Another of its objectives is to “recover and increase” the supply of residential housing in the city center. For that purpose preside includes some strategies to recover buildings now in disuse.

For example, it will allow “private, cataloging and obsolete” giving equipment “to affordable rental housing or Coliving as long as its restoration is guaranteed. The City Council estimates that the measure could benefit 210 buildings distributed throughout the city center. The plan will also allow to pass residential buildings classified and located outside commercial areas to tourist use, but with a small print: “only use can be changed for 15 years, with a direct license linked to the rehabilitation and restoration of the building.” “Subsequently, it will return to residential use”, duck.

And beyond the center of Madrid? The main change affects the historic center of Madrid, where the City Council will cease to grant licenses for dispersed tourist floors in residential buildings; But the Plan resides It also includes some novelties that affect the neighborhoods located outside that central almond. The most important is that the municipal permits for tourist rental will be granted only to the floors that meet certain characteristics.

“Outside the historic center, the City Council allows the implementation of tourist floors under current conditions in both complete buildings and in dispersed homes that live with residential use,” details the Consistory. “In the latter case, the obligation that these tourist floors have independent access on the first floor and ground floor is included as a novelty.”

Does plan reside or speculate? Despite the optimism of the government, not everyone believes that the plan will serve to “order” the supply of tourist rental and reduce the pressure it has been exerting on the housing market for years. On the contrary. The opposition already He has warned of the risk that the new regulations end up having a fairly different effect: that buildings in the center of Madrid that are now residential end up converted into blocks of tourist floors. In fact, more Madrid has even renowned the plan: instead of “resides” he speaks of “expels.”

Similar notice gave the PSOE, worried that the new plan further worsen the radiography of tourist rent in Madrid. His fear is that, instead of supporting basically in particular That they buy floors with their savings to lease them to tourists and achieve extra income, the normative change attracts large capitals. “67% of buildings will be able to transform into tourist floors,” The Socialist Councilor warns Antonio Giraldo in reference to The zone Ape 00.01.

“It is a call to the great owners, to those who strangle the house,” he adds. The head of the Urban Planning area, Borja Carabante, He recalled That Madrid wants me to continue having offered tourist floors, but with a clear premises: that they live “without expelling the neighbor.” During the debate in the Municipal Plenary, the focus was also made on the big problem of the sector: the control of the offer of floors operating without a license despite the “hardening of the sanctioning regime” of which presume The Consistory.

How serious is the problem? There is a revealing fact. According to the figures handled by the City Council itself, updated last October, in the capital operate 17,630 establishments Tourist Of them the vast majority (92.7%) are tourist floors. The problem is that this should not be so. At least with official records in hand. That offer of 16,100 apartments available for travelers collides with the 1,200 apartments operating in a regulated manner, so that the legal offer would be reduced to just under 7.5%.

Last year the City Council chose to apply A moratorium To the new municipal licenses, harden the fines and reinforce the template of inspectors who are dedicated to monitoring the sector, but despite these measures in the city they continue to operate many more tourist floors than the 1,200 that are licensed. At the same time the price of housing has continued to grow clearly: 24.3% in the sale market and 11.5% in the rental of the last year, according to The data Published by Idealista.

Image | Kristijan Arsov (UNSPLASH)

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