Spain announces new ‘two year ban’ in popular tourist area

A popular holiday area in Spain has announced a crackdown on new holiday rental properties for up to two years. Alicante City Council has passed a temporary ban on new licences for short-term tourist lets.

The move comes following growing anti-tourism sentiment in popular Spanish holiday resorts in the past year, with residents in destinations including the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands raising concerns about the impact of mass tourism.

A major worry among locals is rising house prices, with short-term holiday rentals one of the factors which is driving up prices. Alicante isn’t the only region to announce limits; in June 2024, Barcelona’s mayor Jaume Collboni announced plans to ban short term rentals in the city from November 2028.

In a vote earlier this month, Alicante councillors voted in favour of the moratorium, with just two abstentions and one vote against, The Olive Press reports. Roclo Gomez, Alicante’s Urban Planning councillor, said the period would be used to review all the laws over tourist lets and ‘purify all those homes that do not comply with the regulations’.

Ms Gomez said areas of the city will be studied to work out an appropriate number of holiday homes in each neighbourhood. She also plans to carry out a public registration census “of all those that do comply with the regulations, to have a competitive and quality market”.

The council commissioned a report on tourist housing, which found that the estimated number of tourist flats at 4,108 – 2.31per cent of the total housing stock – of which 3,292 are not licensed. Ms Gomez added: “Our main aim is to take care of our neighbourhoods and citizens, always taking into account the tourist character of our city.”

Carmen Robledillo of the Vox