At its ordinary plenary session in May, Valencia City Council unanimously approved suspending the processing and granting of licences for tourist flats in the city for one year, which may be extended a further year.
Last Friday, the mayoress of the Valencian capital, María José Catalá, announced her team's decision to propose this temporary ban and take it to the plenary session. In this meeting, the proposal promoted by the city council was approved by all the parties that make up the council – the Popular Party and Vox in the government and Compromís and PSPV-PSOE in the opposition.
The suspension will affect temporary accommodation in regular blocks of flats and on commercial ground floors, but not entire tourist apartment buildings, providing accommodation similar to a hotel. The measure will be extended to the whole city (El Cabanyal already has its own regulation and this type of licence is already suspended in Ciutat Vella) and will reach the districts: El Palmar, El Saler and El Perellonet, Benimàmet, Carpesa, Poble Nou, and La Punta.
From its approval, the suspension will affect all applications for new tourist flats, but will not affect projects that were submitted before the publication of the new measure in the Diari Oficial de la Generalitat Valenciana (Official Gazette of the Generalitat Valenciana).
More specifically, properties assigned exclusive tertiary use, hotels or entire blocks of tourist flats are excluded from the suspension, as are tourist apartments planned for first floors that can be accessed independently from the street.
Strengthening the inspection plan for tourist flats
The approved motion also intends to continue the Plan of Inspections of tourist flats initiated last summer by Catalá's team after taking over the local government, "focusing specifically" on "ground-floor flats".
The text recognises the economic impact that tourism is having on the city, but warns that "uncontrolled growth at the expense of the housing stock threatens to upset the balance that ensures that Valencia is a city worth living in, with a quality urban environment". In this sense, it cites Venice as an example of a touristified city, "where practically everywhere has been taken over by tourists".
This is why it addresses concepts such as neighbourhood gentrification and touristification, as well as tourist housing being more profitable than conventional rentals.
The town planning councillor, Juan Giner (PP), stressed that so far in 2024, there has been a 900% increase in inspections compared to the same period last year and by suspending licences for a year "we are giving Valencia a tourist regulation that puts neighbours and social harmony first, encourages the use of residential housing and establishes a firm legal security and clear rules of the game for all operators. This is our purpose and these are our actions," he added.
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