Spain - Blow To AirBnB As Palma Bans Apartment Rentals

In a sign of things to come, the capital of the largest Spanish island Mallorca, called Palma de Mallorca, has banned apartment owners of renting out their places for short term rentals after citizens had complained about the cost of renting a place going up because of the mass tourism.

Mayor Antoni Noguera claimed that: "Palma is a determined and courageous city."

"We agreed on this ban based on the general interest of the city and we believe it will set the trend for other cities when they see that finding a balance is key."

A study shows that apartment rental prices in Palma have gone up by 40% since 2013. Furthermore, officials from the local left-wing governing coalition stated that the number of non-licensed apartments, found on websites like AirBnB, which were on offer to tourists for short term rental increased by 50% between 2015 and 2017. In some cases, people could make more money renting out apartments for short terms rather than living there themselves.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en-gb"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/Airbnb?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Airbnb</a> Saw the news about Palma… What happens to summer reservations already paid for? Thanks for any update <a href="https://t.co/QXp6KKc7Ot">https://t.co/QXp6KKc7Ot</a> <a href="https://t.co/W2R4bLZZQG">https://t.co/W2R4bLZZQG</a></p>&mdash; Tom Phillips (@TomPhillipsIPM) <a href="https://twitter.com/TomPhillipsIPM/status/988768651871424512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">24 April 2018</a></blockquote>

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The plight of mass tourism in Spain came to light last year when a woman in Barcelona who had agreed to a one-year contract with a man from London to rent out her apartment found that he was subletting it for short term rentals on AirBnB, making three times what he was paying to her.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en-gb"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">TOURISM: &quot;The Spanish resort city of Palma, on the island of Majorca, is to ban flat owners from renting their apartments to travellers, becoming the first place in Spain to introduce such a measure&quot;.<a href="https://t.co/nDVIJFKZDB">https://t.co/nDVIJFKZDB</a></p>&mdash; The Spain Report (@thespainreport) <a href="https://twitter.com/thespainreport/status/988750636241080320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">24 April 2018</a></blockquote>

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Mr José Hila, Palma's chief of urban planning, commented: "There is a parallel between the evolution of vacation rentals and the rise in rental prices.”

"All European cities are being transformed overnight by this type of offer. We need some order. There will be vacation rental in Palma, but only where there needs to be."

Ever since the IS attacks on European soil in 2015 and 2016, more and more tourists are shunning the North African countries they used to visit, whilst Mediterranean destinations like Italy, Spain and Greece are seeing record numbers of tourists visit their cities.

Source:

https://elpais.com/economia/2018/04/23/actualidad/1524493873_547313.html