The Government Council of the Canary Islands has approved the text of the future Law on Sustainable Planning of the Tourist Use of Housing, which will be sent to the Parliament of the Canary Islands in the coming days to submit it to the debate of the different political forces.
According to the Minister of Tourism and Employment, Jéssica de León, "numerous meetings and encounters with the sector, Island Councils, City Councils, associations, jurists and experts from different fields have been held to learn about their proposals and seek the greatest possible consensus.”
The Minister stressed that the text is supported by the favorable opinion of the Advisory Council, which has validated the essential principles of the law and its central structure. “This determines that new holiday homes cannot be established until urban planning expressly enables it, at least for the next five years.
In other words, until the plenary sessions of the 88 city councils of the Canary Islands democratically decide where and how many holiday homes there can be, based on sustainability criteria,” De León pointed out, who recalled that “until now the phenomenon has grown without control and outside of any planning.”
In its opinion, the advisory body also highlights that the law prioritizes the rights of residents and their quality of life. In this sense, it values the fact that the text prevents newly built homes from being used for vacation rentals during the ten years following their creation, thus guaranteeing their permanence in the residential market.
It also supports limiting the duration of responsible declarations to five years - with the possibility of renewal - and makes some minor observations that have been incorporated into the text that the Government will send to Parliament.
This is the first bill that the autonomous Executive registers in this legislature before the Bureau of the Parliament of the Canary Islands to submit it to debate by the different political forces, which may present their proposals to enrich the text. “It is expected to begin its journey in the Regional Chamber as soon as the session resumes, at the end of January, where the deadlines will be shorter as the urgent procedure has been declared,” the Minister pointed out.
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Classified Activity
During her speech, Jéssica de León explained that the future law seeks to protect the right of citizens to decent housing at affordable prices, which is why it prevents, among other measures, the establishment of entire buildings dedicated to vacation rentals on residential plots.
With that same objective, it prohibits officially protected homes from being marketed for tourist use, understanding that they should always be conceived as an accommodation resource for the most vulnerable families.
Regarding the start of the activity, the new legislative framework maintains the responsible declaration, but compared to the current situation, this must be accompanied by technical and complementary documentation that guarantees the conditions of safety, accessibility, health, sectoral and tourist classified activities. In this regard, De León clarified that the law does not innovate in terms of classified activities, which are already contemplated in the current decree 113/2015, nor does it assign new powers to municipal or island corporations.
On the other hand, the bill incorporates the possibility that small owners who currently operate their homes legally can continue to carry out their activity indefinitely when the rule comes into force, although it will not be transferable.
In the case of non-owner operators, they may continue their activity for an initial period of five years, extendable up to another five or twenty years. “Here it is important to emphasize that the holiday homes that are legal today and comply with the provisions of the current decree 113/2015, will continue to be legal with the new law, and may continue their activity,” the Minister remarked.
