THANKS TO Lancelot Digital
The approval tomorrow of the law regulating holiday rental tourism in the Canary Islands has set off alarm bells on islands like Lanzarote. Doris Borrego, president of the Canary Islands Holiday Rental Association (Ascav), acknowledges that the great concern among small and medium-sized owners is understandable, as the new regulations could jeopardize the survival of a large part of this sector. “This is a death blow for small owners; they will be devoured by these sharks who will be able to remain in the market for up to twenty years, while we, the small owners, as well as management and intermediary companies for holiday rentals, will have at most a few months left.”
Borrego warns that the main obstacle that will lead 85% of vacation rentals to leave the business will be the requirement for Classified Activity status, a requirement that most will not be able to meet. “More than 85% of all existing vacation rentals are going to leave the market, which means that the Canary Islands Government, the Canary Coalition, and the People’s Party have decided that tourism is not for everyone. It should remain in the hands of the same old players, a select few,” he points out.
The president of Ascav explains that, once the Law on Sustainable Management of Tourist Housing Use, popularly known as the Holiday Rental Law, is approved, the Government will have a deadline to provide the municipalities with the official list of registered holiday rentals. “This inability to have our activity classified has been used as an Achilles’ heel to try to outlaw us. Therefore, the Canary Islands Government will have two months to send the lists to the municipalities and island councils of all the holiday rentals located within their jurisdictions. The municipalities have eight months and the island councils six to notify them that we comply with all the requirements. And obviously, we cannot comply with the classification of the activity, so the losses are going to be devastating.”
Borrego advises that only owners who are certain they can meet all the requirements of the Classified Activity should submit their application, while the rest should wait and analyze their situation before acting. “And be careful because the requirements are changing at the last minute. We are seeing municipalities, like Yaiza, that overnight require that a private owner of a holiday home must register as self-employed.”
Ascav believes the law presents numerous difficulties for small property owners. Borrego cited as an example that municipal planning regulations still do not adequately address tourist activity in residential areas, creating more uncertainty and potential legal conflicts.
