What is happening with the rental licences on Ibiza?
As you might already know, currently Ibiza is going through some changes with regards to the commercial real estate industry. Currently the government has put a stop on handing out tourist licenses to the people whom have requested them. This has left a lot of people confused. Especially the ones whom have just purchased a property as an investment and to start with renting it out on a weekly basis in high season.
Why did this happen?
"Se ha acabado el incremento del turismo sin límites que permitía la ley de 2012 (Bauzá PP)"
We all know that Ibiza has become incredibly popular in the last 5 years. Over 7 million tourists visit the island each year during high season. However, the island is not that big and there is not enough space in the hospitality sector for all those people. The locals saw an opportunity and started renting out their houses, apartments, villas like crazy. These people charge weekly prices for their property. This has led to a shortage in housing for the locals themselves and most importantly for the seasonal workers. This has even gone to an extend that hotels and restaurants were doubting if they could even get their staff for the season because there was such a shortage in housing. The houses that were available, were to expensive and the workers would have to spend their monthly salary on their monthly rent.
What happened?
The government recognised this problem and did not want to continue in this way. Because, if there are no workers, no service can be given and their desired image of being a "luxury destination" would be destroyed.
Action
“Esta nueva ley establece que los consells y el Ayuntamiento de Ibiza deberán decidir -en un plazo máximo de 12 meses- qué zonas se declaran aptas para la comercialización de estancias turísticas en viviendas.”
This August the government decided that for the upcoming 12 months, they will no longer give out touristic licenses to the people that have applied. In these 12 months, they want each municipality on the island to decide, where in their region they want to make a touristic area. This means that only in this area there will be houses and villas that are allowed to be rented out commercially. Now even the government has stated that the houses that lie outside of these area borders and that have their license for less than 5 years, will lose their license to restore the order.
Consequences
If property owners without a touristic license decide to rent out their properties, not taking the law into account, he or she will incur a serious infraction and will be automatically sanctioned with a fine. These fines lie between 20,000 and 40,000 euros for property owners and around 400,000 euros for agencies.
The only upside to this story is the future outlook for the properties that are located in the touristic areas and are in possession of a touristic licence, as they will come immensely popular within the sales and rental market.