Alex Trelinski
ALICANTE City Council has voted to extend its moratorium on granting new tourist apartment rental licenses to include blocks of holiday homes.
It also includes suspending any new authorisation for isolated properties, guest houses and tourist hostels.
Approval for the extension was made at a plenary meeting of the authority on Tuesday.
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It means new licenses are suspended for two years over a range of tourist rentals.
The ban concerning tourist apartments came into force in January, but is being legally challenged by the Association of Apartments and Tourist Accommodation of the Valencian Community (APTUR CV).
The group says the initial moratorium ‘totally lacks justification’.
APTUR CV president, Silvia Blasco, said: “The amount of tourist housing in Alicante is moderate and there are no areas of the city where the residential market is under stress.”
Blasco added that tourism brought €220 million of income into the city last year.
“The City Council’s action is not based on technical criteria or objective data, but on political and media interests that will harm thousands of citizens,” he added.
Their lawsuit says that the suspension of licenses was ordered despite the fact that a commission technical study stated that Alicante was not experiencing significant urban development pressure from tourist housing.
“Unfounded arguments are being used to attack and discredit, even personally, those who are part of the tourist housing sector,” Blasco stated.
“These restrictive policies not only harm entrepreneurs and workers in the sector, but also all Alicante residents, as they limit the supply of accommodation, reduce income and employment, and undermine coexistence,” he concluded.
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