The Town hall of Very late in July, Madrid approved a preview of what it intends to be the new General Urban Planning Plan (PGOU) for the capital. In the future regulations, which still have a long processing process and will not come into force until mid-2022, the consistory has included the obligation that they can only be used for tourist rental houses on ground floors, first floors without neighbors below or complete buildings.
The current City Council -with the Popular Party and Citizens as partners- thus intends to use the future PGOU to modify the Special Accommodation Plan in force today and that was designed by the previous municipal team, led by Manuela Carmena. The current regulations from the previous consistory are tougher, since it restricts tourist rental to only flats with direct access to the street -in practice, only low ones-, which meant the massive prohibition of 95% of the houses for tourist use of the city (although de facto between 10,000 and 14,000 tourist apartments continue to be offered in Madrid even if they do not meet these requirements), according to El Periódico de España.
The Madrid Aloja association admits its disappointment with PP and Cs: “We ask for the vote for these parties & rdquor;
The restriction provided by the current consistory of José Luis Martínez-Almeida (PP) would imply a veto for more than 80% of the tourist apartments currently operating in Madrid. “The regulation is not exactly the same as that of Carmena, but the plan is too similar to that of Carmena & rdquor ;, he sums up Adolfo Merás, President of Madrid Lodginga, the regional association of owners of houses for tourist use.
The organization does not hide the “anger and disappointment & rdquor; generated by the change of position of PP and Ciudadanos, who harshly attacked Carmena’s plan in the previous legislature when they were in opposition. “It does not make sense that parties that call themselves liberal want to destroy wealth in this way. The measures they are now defending seem very far from their ideology & rdquor ;, complains Merás, who underlines the “disappointment & rdquor; of the owners of tourist apartments who voted for PP or Cs in the last municipal elections precisely because they defended to overturn the current restrictions. “We ask for the vote for these parties & rdquor ;, he acknowledges.
A sentence as an “excuse”
The City Council justifies its proposed regulation in which it will comply with the judgment of the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid (TSJM) with which it overturned the 14 appeals presented by different organizations against the Special Accommodation Plan of the Carmena team.
The interpretation of the Urban Development area of the City Council, directed by Mariano Fuentes (Citizens), is that the sentence establishes that the tourist rental must be considered a tertiary use of accommodation and not a residential use, so they must comply with the regulations of lodging and develop only on ground floors, in the first without houses under them or in exclusive buildings, municipal sources indicate to THE PERIODIC OF SPAIN.
Madrid Aloja rejects this interpretation and considers it only an excuse used by the City Council to maintain the restrictions. According to the owners association, the TSJM ruling simply endorsed the legality of the Carmena team’s regulations, but does not oblige the current City Council to maintain it. “They hide in that reasoning, but they are not going to deceive us. The sentence must be followed, but the law can be changed without problems. The judge does not dictate laws, he only says that the current regulations are legal. But between being legal and being fair there is a stretch & rdquor ;, explains Merás.
“The City Council is using the sentence as an excuse. What he is doing is dancing the water to the hoteliers & rdquor ;, says the president of Madrid Aloja. And it is that the association denounces that the council is bowing to the “tremendous pressures & rdquor; of the hotel sector to maintain restrictions on tourist rental and put out of business eight out of ten tourist apartments in the capital. “By law, displacing the demand for tourist rentals to other bidders is an abuse & rdquor ;.
Acquired rights
Madrid Aloja defends a new regulation that recognizes the activity of tourist apartments that are already operating in the city (about 10,000, according to the association; 14,000, according to the estimate of an experimental study by the National Institute of Statistics) and establish a maximum number of new homes for tourist use, as well as establishing that in each building there cannot be more than 40% of floors dedicated to tourist rental.
“There is already a consolidated tourist rental offer that does not make sense to be charged by a government that calls itself liberal. Homes for tourist use that already are have acquired rights. We will see it in the courts & rdquor ;, says Merás, anticipating an eventual legal battle if the City Council maintains its intention to approve its urban plan in the announced terms.
Madrid Aloja claims to defend a tightening of the regulation on noise and security in tourist apartments, among other aspects to avoid inconvenience to neighbors, but flatly rejects the establishment of rental restrictions only based on the height of the floor in which are the houses.