Halt to new tourist flat licences in Malaga city: no more for the next three years

Malaga mayor Paco de la Torre has finally fulfilled the promise he made in September last year when he indicated that there would be a "global moratorium" on tourist housing. On Wednesday, 13 August, the mayor presented a new measure that will ban the registration of new single tourist dwellings (VUT) in the next three years, until the modification of the general urban development plan (PGOU) is finalised.

At present, there are 12,754 units registered in Malaga, "but only 8,596 are marketed". On Thursday, Malaga city council will approve the start of the procedure for the modification of the PGOU, which will be accompanied by a three-year moratorium on tourist housing, as a precautionary measure. For the moratorium to come into force legally in Malaga, however, it will have to wait until it is published in the official provincial gazette (BOP), which is expected no earlier than next week.

As De la Torre explained, in principle, VUT registrations will be suspended for three years, during which time work will be done with the sector and the tourist, residential and other associations to regulate the tourist and residential uses of housing in order to adapt to the current context. If this process is completed before the three years are up, the moratorium could expire sooner, but it does not seem that the process will be very quick, as the general guidelines for the modification of the PGOU have not even been drawn up.

De la Torre said that licences for any flats that do not have independent access and supplies are already being turned down. In addition, he highlighted that the urban planning department had already created a list of 43 saturated areas in Malaga where new tourist dwelling registrations could not take place. This number has gone from 43 to 53, given that the number of flats registered for tourist use exceeds 8% of the total in all of them. Another 29 neighbourhoods are close to 8%.

De la Torre, who once again emphasised his support of a tourist tax, which would help residents in greatest need when renting housing, this time directed his comment at the regional government, saying it could also take the form of a tourist fee. The mayor gave the Balearic Islands and Catalonia as an example - regions where the tourist tax is already in operation.

De la Torre also criticised the government's housing law, stating that, as it does not have sufficient legal guarantees for owners, it causes them to register their properties as tourist dwellings.