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Valencia and Palma to Impose Holiday Rental Restrictions

Valencia is the latest Spanish city to consider imposing restrictions on short-term holiday rentals.

Following other Spanish cities such as Barcelona, Spain’s third largest city of Valencia is looking to tackle problems brought by over-tourism to the city, by curbing the proliferation of Airbnb-type accommodation.

New legislation is due to be voted on before the summer by the regional government in Valencia about limiting holiday rentals to just ground and first-floor level accommodation.

In addition, properties used entirely for holiday use will need to apply for a regulated licence, while new lets will be forbidden from the old town.

A new register will also be set up by the local authorities that owners will need to join to allow them to rent their property out for tourism purposes. Home-sharing websites such as Airbnb will face fines unless they list the registration number for each property.

A similar scheme already introduced in Barcelona has seen the regional government shut down around 1,000 rental properties across the city, and fine home-sharing websites for illegally promoting unlicensed properties.

Meanwhile Palma, the capital and main city of Mallorca has already voted in measures to ban holiday rentals in privately-owned flats or buildings that house more than one family completely from this July. Privately owned rentals outside flats will still be permitted as long as the property is licensed and complies with the government’s official rental criteria.

General Director of Tourism for the Balearic Islands, Antonio Sanso, commented: ‘In recent years, tourism to the Balearic Islands has grown significantly and despite having positive consequences, this has also brought a series of challenges. Our objective is to promote a quality tourism model which does not impact negatively on the destination and which benefits the local community.

‘One of the recent issues faced by the city of Palma has been the rise of privately owned rentals through platforms, which are making suitably priced accommodation inaccessible to locals and seasonal workers.

‘Our tourism strategy is very much focused on growing a sustainable tourism model, which strikes a balance between the preservation of our islands, the wellbeing of local residents and growing tourism, which is hugely important to economy of the islands.

Overseas property investors who already have property in Valencia or Palma, or are considering investing in the cities, need to check details on the new legislation carefully.

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