Sustainable Tourism Law

194 SUSTAINABLE TOURISM LAW regions are the only ones to witness an above-average increase in Spain (5.6%) over the last year. Indeed, most analysts attribute these disproportionate price hikes to the general widespread nature holiday apartments have gained. The same has occurred with rent price ranges for local residents. There are cities (Barcelona, Madrid, Ibiza, etc.) where the few rentals available are too expensive for most local residents, since property owners prefer to rent to tourists. A paradigmatic example of this is the city of Barcelona, where rents rose by 8% over the last six months of 2016, and on average stand at 774 euro: a 70-metre flat costs 1,211 euro, 17.3 euro per square metre. What is happening in the rental market in Barcelona (where it is hard to find anything below 800 euro and prices are continually rising) is not due to a single factor, although experts do believe that one of the main causes is how widespread renting homes to tourists has become. V. TOURIST APARTMENT/HOME REGULATION IN SOME AUTONOMOUS REGIONS IN SPAIN Some Autonomous Regions in Spain have regulated holiday apartments/homes through different levels of legislation (laws and regulations – normally, Regional Government Decrees). The regulation is varied, both in terms of its strength and the possibilities of establishing holiday apartments/homes and the requirements they must fulfil. Below is an analysis of what I believe to be the most notable regional regulations, since they concern the most popular tourist regions in Spain. 1. Catalonia A) After the initial regulations for the area introduced in Decree 164/2010 of 9 th November, the Autonomous Region of Catalonia currently regulates holiday apartments/homes through the Tourism Act of Catalonia (Law 13/2002, modifying this area in subsequent laws) and particularly through Decree 159/2012 of 20 th November 3 . The Tourism Act only contains two short articles (50.b and 50.c) regarding holiday leases 4 , whose standout requirement is the need to present to the Local 3 Official Journal of the Regional Government of Catalonia (“Diari Oficial de la Generalitat”) of 5 th December 2012. 4 Art. 1 of the Act: “Holiday apartments/homes are dwellings directly or indirectly transferred to third parties in exchange for financial compensation for a seasonal stay, in the condition of immediate availability and with the characteristics set out in regulations”.