The Parliament has voted to ratify Decree-Law 3/2023 on measures against tourist accommodation. The restriction is intended to facilitate access to housing, but the expropriation of these properties could have serious environmental impacts.

According to Idescat, in 2022 there were 2,961 second homes in the municipality of Pals, which represent 74.221% of all existing housing in the municipality, and are mostly located 7 km from the village in developments near the beach, without services or public transport, and with a limited and seasonal job market, conditions that make these homes unsuitable as permanent residences.

Currently, Idescat can remotely access the actual electricity consumption readings of each household, and it has been found that, although the municipality has recently experienced a slight demographic recovery, there are still 981 dwellings empty all year round (never used) and a further 771 have very low or sporadic use.. Most of the small municipalities in Catalonia have experienced decades of population decline, with gradual ageing as a result of low birth rates and because young people are forced to move to larger municipalities with better job offers and opportunities. On the other hand, at present there is no social housing for young people, and there are no plans to build any in the municipality in the coming years, as is the case in most small municipalities.

Of all these secondary dwellings, only 1,362 have a tourist accommodation licence (HUTs), although there are licences that have never been used.

Uone hundred and eighty-six point sixty-six% of the HUTs in Catalonia are owned by private individuals, who treat the tourist rental as part of their use of the property as a second home for their own holidays, and Only 13.341% of owners have more than one holiday home.. This is because most owners of holiday homes in Catalonia buy their second residence in tourist municipalities in the Pyrenees and on the coast to use sporadically for their holidays, and for the rest of the time they let it out., For this reason, the owners are not large-scale landlords, nor do they have any real capacity to exert a speculative influence on the price or supply of a primary residence., because for the most part they are second homes that will in no case be let on a permanent basis.

The holiday let of a second home increases the intensity of use of secondary dwellings, helping the local economy, and de-seasonalising their use, and improving the viability of local shops, restaurants and other services in the villages, while also reducing the seasonality of local jobs, as well as those of the specialist companies that manage, refurbish or maintain these properties, and significantly improve the collection of municipal taxes such as the tourist tax, whereas most secondary homes without this licence are empty or only used by the owner with very low intensity or sporadic use, or are simply let by the day outside the law.

Currently, 50% of the total tourist tax collected from stays in tourist accommodation in a municipality is returned to the town councils and therefore represents a clear benefit, especially for small municipalities, while the other 50% is allocated to projects of the Generalitat. But according to Law 5/2017, This tax was created to “to promote sustainable tourism and quality, the protection, preservation, recovery and improvement of tourist resources and the development of tourism-related infrastructure. For this reason, Various entities are calling for the Generalitat to allocate its 50% to protection. of the main tourist resource of these coastal municipalities, which are the last natural areas, through the Coastal Conservancy., in accordance with Coastal Law 8/2020.

Environmental Impact of the Decree-Law

On 7 November, Parliament voted to ratify the Decree-Law 3/2023, of urgent measures against tourist accommodation. With this regulation, 264 municipalities in Catalonia such as Pals They will be forced to close tourist accommodation within five years, by 7 November 2028. A tender is expected to be launched, ensuring competitive public participation and prioritising the highest bidder, thereby reducing the current legal supply of tourist accommodation. that exceeds the ratio of 10 tourist rentals per 100 inhabitants. In the case of Pals, this represents the revocation of the majority of licences (from 1,342 to 254), reducing the total number of beds from 7,481 to 1,395, that is, more than 6,000 tourist accommodation beds. This could lead to an increase in arbitrariness when deciding on the granting, renewal or revocation every five years of licences in each municipality.

The Government's argument for justifying this regulation is that by limiting tourist accommodation, access to housing will be facilitated, because many of these properties will become primary residences., but that won't be the case because it is affecting a type of housing that is a second residence. 

As we have seen, most holiday home owners in Catalonia let their own second residence out as a tourist rental as an investment to secure returns that will allow for proper maintenance and refurbishment of the property, and to use it themselves for a few days each year. This owner is not interested in keeping their second home permanently occupied under a five-year contract because they also use it for their holidays. The conclusion is that he will either stop renting it out, lose the income needed to maintain it, or, unfortunately, rent out his second home illegally.

Built environments have already transformed rural and natural landscapes and, therefore, restricting use to the owner alone, without the ability to let it, is even more unsustainable. On the other hand, The reduction in legal supply will increase pressure to build new types of accommodation, creating new demands for urban growth..

For all these reasons, it is important to maintain the current supply of any existing form of tourist accommodation in a municipality, since any reduction in the number of beds without a corresponding fall in demand will lead to an increased need to build and urbanise, eliminating natural areas which, as we have said, are a municipality's main tourist resource.

According to a study carried out in recent years by Dr Pablo Muñoz Gallego, Professor at the University of Salamanca, 75.31% are family holidays, and 53.91% of holiday home users in Catalonia are Catalan., 10.11% of the Community of Valencia, 6.61% of Andalusia and the vast majority of the rest are Spanish and French, and this trend has remained constant over the study's recent years.

The revocation of the majority of tourist rental licences will mean that these Catalan families will have to go on holiday outside Catalonia, to destinations further from their places of residence, since many of these families are not willing to use other types of accommodation, and will simply go to other destinations outside Catalonia, causing a Economic and environmental impact.

If we analyse the 22 municipalities of the Costa Brava, In 2022 there were 134,346 second homes, of which 46,134 were empty all year. and 53,073 with very low or sporadic use. Of all these second homes, only 36,777 are licensed for tourist rentals which, as we have seen, in 86.66% belong to individual owners (31,871 HUTs), who use their second home for a few days on holiday and rent it out for the rest of the time. The regulations provide for unequal reductions for tourist municipalities, of up to 17,000 HUTs (88,306 beds), licences which the town councils will have to expropriate without compensation, simply by leaving them temporarily unsealed for five years.

In many Costa Brava municipalities, this means losing between 50% and 85% of the current supply, precisely those with the smallest populations and the greatest demand for permanent housing, and the highest proportion of second homes that will not enter the long-term rental market: Roses will lose 62% (2,933 HUTs), Castelló d'Empúries 68% (2,021), L'Escala 69% (2,108), Castell-Platja d'Aro 59% (1,390), Begur 76% (1,234), Llançà 71% (1,078), Port de la Selva 84% (over 490), Cadaqués 71% (716), Torroella 52% (1,350) and Calonge and Sant Antoni (1,126), municipalities with a low hotel offering. 

Table 1: Principal dwellings, vacant dwellings, very low-intensity use dwellings, non-principal dwellings, HUTs, HUT places and change in HUTs on the Costa Brava (according to Idescat, 2021–2022)

Paradoxically, in municipalities with a strained rental market—namely the most central or well-connected areas, with more public services, population density, job opportunities, and strong demand for residential housing—the decree allows the number of tourist properties to be increased, such as Blanes (2,786 more HUTs), Lloret de Mar (634), Palamós (290) or Sant Feliu de Guíxols (1,139).

To other cities with a larger population More HUTs could be opened, such as in Girona (an additional 10,000 HUTs), Figueres (4,500) or Barcelona (155,000).. The social and economic reality and the problem of a lack of affordable housing are completely different in each city and in every neighbourhood or area; therefore, the same measures cannot be applied to all municipalities or areas because they are not comparable realities. 

On the other hand, most municipalities with a strained rental market already have municipal regulations governing them, as in the case of Lloret de Mar, Castell-Platja d'Aro (2023), Girona (2023) or Barcelona (2005). In this latter case, it was the first municipality where, Since 2005, the opening of new tourist accommodation in Ciutat Vella has been prohibited. (where there are only 600 active HUTs for a population of 105,000 inhabitants) And, for the past eight years under the PEUAT, the ban has been extended to the rest of the city. For this reason, the number of tourist rental properties has been steadily decreasing over the last eight years., leaving a proportion of less than 1% of the total housing stock.

The impact on the various economic sectors of these municipalities, especially small retail, catering and other services, can be devastating, since according to various studies it is estimated that, unlike other types of tourist accommodation, users spend a 74.31 per cent of spending (€1,969 million) on purchases and services such as local shops, cultural and sporting activities, gastronomy, excursions and leisure, and only 25.71 per cent of spending on rent.. It is expected that this could mean that on the Costa Brava alone more than 500,000 tourists will stop visiting us and will have to’to dismiss more than 5,550 direct employees and 4,900 indirect jobs on the Costa Brava. We are heading for widespread impoverishment and the closure of many businesses.

According to a study published by Federatur, there are 26,291 direct employees and 25,500 indirect employees in this sector, with contracts that will now be precarious under this regulation, with licences revoked every five years. Thousands of redundancies are expected across Catalonia and 80,000 small property owners will see the closure of this activity without any compensation, with a huge impact and precariousness on the quality of the offering. A decline in the quality and professionalisation of this type of accommodation, which accounts for 46.431% of the total supply of places in Catalonia, is to be expected, ultimately deteriorating due to a lack of reinvestment and precarious activity.

Housing Policies on the Costa Brava

If we analyse the urban planning of the municipality of Pals, the construction of nearly 700 new homes in the coming years, But, as is the case in most municipalities, many of these homes will be located in new developments with no public transport, far from the town centre and public services, affecting the municipality's last habitats of community interest, which are its main attraction. Nor is any economic activity planned near the new developments to retain or attract permanent residents, beyond the creation of two new seasonal hotels located at the Jonquers and in the Pineda del Vaixell.

The problem of securing a supply of affordable housing requires political will and structural changes in municipal planning so that the Generalitat does not allow construction in areas remote from the main settlements or far from public services (schools, health centres, sports facilities, retirement homes, multipurpose centres, public transport, etc), essential shops (pharmacies, food shops, etc), or an absence of economic activity capable of generating year-round job opportunities (retail, industry, offices, etc), thereby breaching the Law 9/2003 on Mobility and Law 2/2002 on Urban Planning. 

Furthermore, the Generalitat and the local councils must promote protected housing as required by the urban planning law at 30%, and could also allocate it in the land reserves obtained through the 15% urban development levy. For example, in 2022 in the province of Barcelona 50 per cent of protected housing was lost, whereas In the 22 municipalities of the Girona coast, the development plans still provide for the construction of 40,000 new homes, the majority in natural settings far from urban centres where it is unviable for a primary residence and which therefore will be secondary residences that under this regulation, they cannot be let out for tourist purposes.. 

This decree-law It will not solve the housing shortage problem and will lead to the impoverishment of municipalities, the deterioration of the existing built stock and a significant environmental impact due to the need to build new types of tourist accommodation to replace the current offering, as well as a considerable decline in family and local tourism.

Date of article creation: 12/12/2023.

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