Sustainable Tourism Law

PRIVATE HOLIDAY RENTALS IN SPANISH LAW 189 The following table shows the results for properties and beds: LEGALISED AVAILABILITY BY PROVINCE Province Legalised properties Beds Percentage of total Barcelona 12,620 (not incl. BCN) 75,579 31.5% Gerona 16,434 95,772 41.6 Tarragona 9,667 56,996 24.7 Lerida 845 5,086 2.2 Barcelona city 9,606 TOTAL 49,172 Source: Catalan Regional Government Office of Tourism , 2015 The figures for Catalonia are also striking. According to official data, in 2015 there were almost 50,000 legalised flats/apartments in Catalonia for holiday leases, with the Office of Tourism estimating a total of half a million places at present, if the non-legalised beds are included, which would represent over half of the available total (there are only 230,433 legalised places, not including the city of Barcelona). In short, I believe these are alarming figures, showing what could happen if the ability to lease multi-family homes or flats to tourists is not controlled. IV. THOUGHTS ON THE LEGALISATION OF TOURIST STAYS IN PRIVATE HOMES The problem of tourist leases in residential properties does not lie with single-family dwellings (especially detached properties) but rather in buildings of multi-family dwellings or condominiums where tourists and residents are in the same building. In this second instance, in my opinion there are powerful theoretical arguments against the unconditional and general admission of this possibility. I shall attempt to summarise these arguments below, as I believe this type of tourist lease has, at least, the following disadvantages: – It completely changes the current tourism model; – It would represent an unacceptable increase in the total number of beds in tourist areas;