The bill being finalized by the Government of the Canary Islands to regulate vacation homes in the islands may drive part of the sector into the underground economy, as warned this Monday by the Secretary-General of the Hotel Alliance, Fernando Gallardo.
In the second congress on this type of tourist offer organized by the Canarian Vacation Rental Association (Ascav) in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, which focuses on the challenges and risks of the draft law for its regulation, Gallardo told reporters that it is also necessary to "listen to tourists" and respond to those who choose this option for accommodation.
According to this businessman and journalist, tourism will continue to stay in vacation homes despite regulations, as has happened in New York, where the hotel lobby has managed to ban it, but "the underground economy has been unleashed like never before" because the owners of these properties have chosen to continue operating, as tourists continue to demand it despite the violation of regulations.
Gallardo also emphasized that so far in Spain, judges have "practically overturned" all attempts to regulate vacation homes.
The freedom of entrepreneurship is a principle enshrined within the European Union, and the regulations that have existed violate it, so it is normal for the courts to rule against them, he said.
"The EU has suffered many political ups and downs," and it is likely that the future government of Donald Trump will "bring a wave of liberalization to Europe if we do not want to be penalized with tariffs," so he ventured that "putting obstacles to the freedom of entrepreneurship will have little impact."
However, he pointed out that "many national, regional, and municipal governments will feel the temptation to do so to try to solve a problem that today confronts many people, tourists, families, and hoteliers."
In his opinion, the situation is quite complex in relation to tourism because "there is no central idea, and the administrations pass the buck to each other: The Government passes it to the autonomous communities, and these to the city councils, which, in the end, will pass it to the citizens."
According to Gallardo, those who decide what happens in a territory are not only the people who are registered in that place, but also the 95 million tourists who travel to Spain every year because they find enough attractions, but "they have a voice and a vote, and their decision is important to focus on this problem."
The Secretary-General of the Hotel Alliance considered that it is necessary to "learn to live together" with tourism "and listen a lot to the voice of these 95 million tourists who have avoided a dramatic crisis after the pandemic."
Spain is the fastest-growing country in Europe, and this is due to tourism, which has caused a "revulsion" in all productive sectors and has been the engine of economic recovery, so "we have to address these causes, analyze them with the complexity that it entails," he added.
"You cannot fragment decisions so much, but you have to understand the will of the 95 million who travel to Spain and the 1.5 billion international tourists, who will soon be 2 billion," Gallardo stressed, who also stressed that the "digital world imposes new ways and challenges" that must be faced.
The president of the Canarian Vacation Rental Association (Ascav), Doris Borrego, maintains that the draft Law will end 90% of the sector, which generates 1.7 billion euros annually in the archipelago, and will also not solve the housing problem in the archipelago.
Vacation rentals account for 4% of the total housing in the Canary Islands, where there are 210,000 empty homes due to the new Housing Law, which she has described as "disastrous" for having "taken away the legal certainty of the owner."
Of the 1,900 members that Ascav has, less than 10% are willing to allocate their properties to residential rentals, which are also villas and bungalows that do not meet the needs of housing applicants.
Borrego has also stated that the future law being drafted by the Canarian Government only "includes restrictions and prohibitions" on vacation rentals, a sector that it will "destroy" and that will harm Canarian families and SMEs that declare their taxes and generate economic activity and employment.
The new law will "bring more poverty and precariousness," but vacation rentals will continue to operate "in the hands of foreign investors under opacity," stressed the president of Ascav, for whom this rule should have been debated from the beginning.
"No one agrees with it, only the hotel 'lobby' of Santa Cruz de Tenerife," Borrego said.
The Canarian Federation of Islands, the Canarian Federation of Municipalities, the builders, and the real estate sector have positioned themselves against the future law, which they have described as an "aberration," according to ASCAV.
Borrego has indicated that 89% of vacation homes in the islands are in the hands of small investors and owners.
The economist Rosa Rodríguez, who also spoke at the congress and who has coordinated a study on tourism and vacation homes in the Canary Islands by the College of Economists of Las Palmas, has elaborated that vacation homes are not the problem that causes the lack of residential housing and that it is necessary to legislate based on the situation of each island.