The Canary Islands Vacation Rental Association (ASCAV) denounces that Coalición Canaria and Partido Popular intend to approve the Law for Sustainable Planning of Tourist Use of Housing on November 12 "without consideration, eradicating thousands of families with vacation homes from the tourism landscape."
In a note to the media, they emphasize that the Canary Islands Government intends to pass the Law “against the only Canarian association that represents the sector, society, the business association of the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, professionals, practically all sectors that feed off the activity, the opposition parties, and of course, the thousands and thousands of Canarian families who dedicate themselves to vacation rentals.”
ASCAV denounces that the regional government has decided to use the "steamroller" approach, no matter the cost and as soon as possible, with the aim of minimizing the political cost in the upcoming elections. As if it were to be forgotten whose responsibility it is to sentence and definitively eradicate the families and residents of the Canary Islands who own a vacation home.
"Without regard or consideration, without listening to or heeding the warnings about the tremendous consequences, it is urgent to cause a hecatomb by expelling tourism from society," he adds.
ASCAV believes that the new law has a “clear and transparent” meaning: Tourism does not belong to everyone, but only to a few who will undoubtedly further impoverish the pockets of the people of the Canary Islands. Society must settle for participating in tourism as employees of the exclusive owners of tourism, who demand their labor.”
The Canary Islands Vacation Rental Association wonders “what will happen to all the entrepreneurs who are dedicated to managing and intermediating these vacation homes, the cleaning companies, the maintenance companies, and a long etcetera.” And it concludes: “They don’t care in the slightest.”
ASCAV denies that vacation homes will return to the traditional rental market "as presumed by the regional government."
"Nothing could be further from the truth, since 67% are in tourist areas and residential apartment complexes and cannot be rented out either. And the majority of the remaining vacation homes will be closed or sold due to the lack of legal certainty in residential rentals," they add.
“The consequence will be that thousands of families will have to sell their homes to the highest bidder, that is, to foreigners. They will lose their assets that they have preserved for decades thanks to vacation rentals,” they add.
"The Perfect Excuse: Classified Activity"
ASCAV believes that "the perfect excuse will be to blame the town councils for not granting Classified Activity status to holiday homes."
"What they won't say is that vacation rentals cannot comply with the Classified Activities Law because they are not even contemplated. The Law was approved in 2011 and the Vacation Rental Decree in 2015, and it contemplated the residential use of homes. Therefore, the tourist use for the Town Halls is exclusively reserved for tourist complexes," they explain.
ASCAV recalls that "from the first minute they showed their concern to the councilor Jessica de León" to whom they conveyed that they had been "demanding for six years the modification of said Law in order to comply."
"If this Government approves the Law for the Sustainable Management of Tourist Use of Housing, it will go down in history as the one responsible for eradicating and impoverishing thousands of Canary Island families, preventing them from participating in tourism," he declares.
ASCAV adds that, "the rest of society will find it impossible to travel around the Canary Islands because they cannot afford accommodation within their reach."
