Spain to close thousands of tourist apartments and holiday villas in new crackdown

Thousands of holiday rentals in Spain could soon be shut down amid a new crackdown on tourist tax evasion. The Balearic government has passed a new decree to allow the islands’ councils and town halls to block illegal holiday rentals.

Apartments and tourist villas that are not registered to pay Spain’s mandatory tourist tax will be blocked. The move comes after recent figures suggested there could be as many as 8,700 illegal holiday lettings in the Balearics alone.

Inspectors will now have the powers to shut down properties operating illegally. The local authority wants the police force to be involved in the control work.

Read more: Tourists in Spain hit out at ‘£60 per person’ daily charge

Illegal tourist rentals are just one of the issues covered by the wide-ranging decree, which includes 46 changes to the law in total. They also include measures relating to nature conservation, waste, roads and tourism.

Last weekend, more than 10,000 protesters took to the streets of Mallorca – the largest island of the Balearic Islands – to demand “immediate action” from the government to target tourist overcrowding. Tensions have risen between locals and tourists in some parts of Spain in recent months, with some residents claiming the surge in tourists has driven up rent prices and contributed to housing shortages.

Neighborhood organization Banc de Temps de Sencelles, which organized the demonstration, presented a manifesto to the local authority with seven suggested key measures to ensure more affordable housing for local residents. Protesters are also pushing for new legislation to restrict foreign nationals from buying homes in the Balearic Islands – which include Mallorca, Ibiza, Menorca and Formentera – unless they have lived there for at least five years.

Tourism generates around 45% of the islands’ income, however the manifesto calls for a more “controlled” approach to tourism that “does not determine our whole way of life”. The group insisted it was not “saying no to tourism”, but added: “We need to rethink the tourism model”.

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