Spain may ban private owners from letting their properties to holidaymakers?

Interesting article on thinkSpain.

With so many private owners renting aprtments in the area can you imagine the effect this would have on businesses in the port if this went ahead?  Anyone know any more about this?

Steve

Spain may ban private owners from letting their properties to holidaymakers
By: thinkSPAIN , Tuesday, April 16, 2013

RESTRICTIONS on letting property to holidaymakers in a bid to appease the hotel industry could cost around 150,000 people their livelihood.
The government is about to approve legislation which will mean private property let to tourists will no longer be covered by the State Law of Urban Rentals (LAU), and will instead be subject to regional government law or industry regulations.

This potentially opens the door to thousands, if not millions of holiday properties which are currently legal ceasing to be so.

At present, Spanish law allows holiday homes to be rented out under any circumstances, classifying them as 'seasonal lets'.

But the central government says the omnipresence and proliferation of private villas and apartments being let – largely over the internet – is creating 'intrusion' and 'disproportionate competition' for the 'traditional tourism industry'.

The new law is likely to ban owners from renting out their properties for given numbers of days or nights.

Until now, letting out a private home by the day or night has been a basic right of all owners, but soon, if it is considered that this is 'purely for tourism purposes', it will be restricted and only hotels and aparthotels will be able to be legally let to holidaymakers.

This would effectively make the short-term letting out of any residential property against the law.

Although nothing has changed at present, spokespersons from various apartment letting companies say this appears to be little more than 'a moratorium with an expiry date'.

Even now, however, different rules apply to letting of private homes in different regions.

In Catalunya, owners who wish to rent out their apartments or villas to holidaymakers have to apply for a licence.

And on the Costa Blanca, established commercial agencies dealing in holiday apartments say they welcome a change in the law because those who let their own properties over the internet are 'taking away business' from them.
 

I think goverment want to control that increasing bussines to pay taxes, if someone rents an apartment using internet outside Spain they do not pay vat here, it is matter of money as everyting...

luis.

 I've been studying the financial aspects of the EZ and Spain for some time.

The proposal to stop private holiday lets will cause some owners to panic sales of their properties.

It will also reduce the attractiveness of buying a property in Spain for some prospective buyers.

The result - further depression in the price of properties (particularly costal) properties.  The Spain banks would then have to write down the property asset values on their books and stregthen their balance sheets with new capital issues and further temporary borrowing from the ECB.  The end result of the measure is

a) losses to property owners (some of them spanish)

b) losses to bank shareholders

c) further reductions in  confidence of the Eurozone

d) increased borrowing cost for the Spanish Government

I don't rent out but if I did I would not be worrying about this pathetic stupid idea dreamt up by economically illiterate Spainish politicians - even if it did get enacted it would quickly be reversed.

They do make me laugh.