By Santiago Carneri
Copyright euroweeklynews
What had long been an open secret has now been confirmed with exact figures. Spain’s Housing Ministry has notified online platforms of 7,499 illegal tourist flats in the Valencian Community, ordering their removal from listings after failing to obtain the mandatory registration number required since July 1 due to non-compliance with legal requirements.
The municipalities with the highest number of revoked applications are Valencia (731), Torrevieja (700), Denia (538), Alicante (528) and Benidorm (476). By province, Alicante leads with 4,734 rejections, followed by Valencia with 1,754 and Castellón with 1,011 (of which 45 are in Castellón de la Plana).
A resident of Denia, Daniel, told Euro Weekly News: “They should publish the addresses of those properties so that neighbours know who those uncivil landlords are, the ones who have driven locals out of their neighbourhoods just to profit from fraudulent holiday rentals.”
The figure for Denia is striking. Despite being third on the regional list, it surpasses larger municipalities such as Alicante or Elche, as well as other major tourist hotspots including Benidorm and Gandia.
Since last August, registrars, the ministry and platforms have been sharing information through the Digital One-Stop Window in an effort to stamp out fraud in temporary accommodation. Since January 1, the registry has received 336,497 applications across Spain, 78.75 per cent of which relate to tourist rentals. Nationally, 53,876 illegal tourist flats have been reported to platforms for delisting.
What happens next
The platforms must now proceed to remove the adverts of these properties, many of which may be listed on multiple sites.
Gabriela, a hotel business owner in Denia, told Euro Weekly News: “When a section of society proves incapable of imposing ethical limits on itself, the state must act with the force of a hammer.”
Spain is the first country in Europe to implement a single registry for temporary accommodation, in collaboration with the College of Registrars, in order to clamp down on fraud in tourist rentals. Through the Housing Ministry’s Digital One-Stop Window, registry data are cross-checked with those of digital platforms, which are collaborating to identify adverts lacking the required code.
Families forced out of their neighbourhoods
If a registration code is revoked, it means the College of Registrars received an application with incomplete or incorrect data, or that irregularities were not rectified within the allotted timeframe.
According to the ministry, the registry and the Digital One-Stop Window aim “to safeguard the social function of housing and combat illegal tourist flats, which drive families out of their neighbourhoods and distort the character of cities.”
