The new regulations for the tourist rental market in the Balearic Islands have cost the sector about 500,000 customers in the last two years, according to the latest data from the Institute Balear d’Estadística, or Ibestat.
In 2017 almost 2.5 million visitors stayed in tourist accommodation but bookings plummeted by 25% last year to just over 2 million.
All holiday accommodation properties must have a licence number from the Department of Tourism and any home owners caught renting to tourists without the proper papers can be fined up to 40,000 euros. Websites that advertise illegal properties face hefty penalties of up to 400,000.
Regulations
Before the Tourism Law came into force in 2018, hundreds of unauthorised villas and apartments were offered for rent online but in the last two years they’ve dwindled considerably, mostly because of the possibility of being fined.
4,268 of the 14,297 rooms rented to tourists since August of last year were in single-family homes and 9,195 were in flats.
There are now around 2,300 apartments with tourist rental authorisation in Majorca, but none of them are in Palma, because the City Council has banned tourist rentals throughout the city.
The clamp down on illegal holiday rentals hasn’t stopped tourists coming to the Balearic Islands, they’re just opting to book hotel rooms instead of apartments.
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As a business owner in Mallorca, I can tell you that the economy on the island suffered last year. The tourism law referred to above was a major contributing factor.
I disagree with your statement about people staying in hotels if they are not able to rent. I know for a fact that many people have gone elsewhere. You either enjoy hotel holidays or you don’t. There is no way you can force people to stay where they don’t want to, this was the intention behind the laws imposed on property owners. Bars and restaurants must have been affected which is very sad for the island.
@Mike: from what it says in the last paragraph above it shouldn't really have had much effect, unless they have all diverted to all-inclusive. I doubt anything will have changed much in Port de Pollença.
Be careful what you wish for.
Would be interesting to see the figures about the impact this had on bars, restaurants and shop owners. Must have been significant, especially in places like Puerto Pollensa.