The Spanish government will convert 53,000 tourist flats into permanent rental housing after detecting irregularities in the national registry.
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The Spanish government has announced the removal of some 53,000 tourist flats from the Single Register of Tourist and Seasonal Rentals, which will now become permanent rentals.
The decision was announced by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez during a party event on Sunday in Málaga.
"We have detected thousands of irregularities in many of these homes that are intended to become holiday and tourist rentals. And what we are going to do is remove 53,000 homes from this register so that they become permanent rentals for young people and families in our country," he said.
The housing ministry has already asked tourist accommodation platforms, such as Airbnb and Booking.com, to remove ads for these accommodations.
On Sunday, Airbnb issued a statement saying that "this is a new chapter for Airbnb in Spain, defined by a proactive commitment to collaboration, quality and a long-term vision of sustainable growth that benefits everyone".
According to the company, which has had several run-ins with the Spanish government, some 70,000 additional listings now display an official registration number, meaning the vast majority of accommodations are now complying with this requirement.
However, in collaboration with the Spanish Ministry of Housing, the platform found that just under 10 per cent of the revoked national registrations are still associated with active listings. These listings will be deregistered immediately, according to the company.
Andalusia, the region with the most withdrawn tourist flats
Andalusia tops the list of regions with the most tourist flat registrations withdrawn, with 16,740 cases.
It is followed by the Canary Islands with 8,698, Catalonia with 7,729, the Valencian Community with 7,499, Galicia with 2,640, the Balearic Islands with 2,373, Madrid with 1,531 and Murcia with 1,402.
The Ministry of Housing points out a unique situation in the Community of Madrid, where 83 per cent of the applications for registration correspond to temporary rentals, while only 17 per cent have been presented as tourist rentals.
In terms of cities, the highest concentration of cancelled registrations is in Seville (2,289), followed by Marbella (1,802), Barcelona (1,564), Malaga (1,471), Madrid (1,257) and Benalmádena (926).
