why holiday lets are not properly in the tourist sector

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costa-brava
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why holiday lets are not properly in the tourist sector

Post by costa-brava »

The reason is historic. Oh! No! Not a history lesson!
When I first did holiday lets it was for my in-laws apartment. I went to the tax office to check and they told me that it was irrelevant whether you rented for a day, a year or a lifetime. You had to do a rental contract (not an invoice. You cannot legally raise an invoice if you are not incorporated in Social Security "autonomo"). Then as long as we declared the earnings everything would be hunky-dory.
The change began in 2011 when Catalunya introduced a new law on "habitatges d'us turistic". By that time we had several apartments so I became one of the first to register.
In 2013 the Spanish government did a major revamp of the law on property rental, introducing new protection measures for both tenant and landlord. At the last minute somebody said, "What about these summer rentals that are destroying the hotel trade?" It was too late to go back to the drawing board so they simply added an annex clause that took holiday lets out of the new law entirely. They said it was up to the regions to sort it out. In reality it left this important sector in a limbo that still exists to this day. There is no Spanish law that governs holiday rentals. In the meantime, most of the regions had just published their new "Plan de Turismo" for the 21st century.
Eventually, one by one, they drafted new regulations that really had two purposes: to make sure you pay taxes and to limit the expansion of amateurs in the tourist business.
So, if you have one of the "casas Rurales" or "viviendas rurales" you are in a sector that is strongly supported by government. But if you have a "vivienda de us turistico" in one of the big towns or cities or in one of the big resorts, they don't really want you. The exception (though it's not always clear) is for quality villas with pool etc. that are out of town. But then Airbnb came along and really bust things up by offering rooms in private houses and muddied the waters once again. So a new amendment was approved by Madrid that gives other owners in a residential apartment block stronger rights to prevent holiday lets in their block. In all of this private holiday lets (viviendas de uso turistico) are out on a limb. Tourists love them but the powers that be are extremely suspicious of them and in several areas/cities have limited them or sought to prohibit them entirely. There is a confused and confusing set of rules that vary widely across the country many of which are built into laws that do not directly involve holiday lets.
(Sorry Marks. That's nearly as long as one of my links)
Sunbeam
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Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2015 5:24 pm
Location: Spain

Post by Sunbeam »

Very interesting insight - thank you.
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