The National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC) issued a report last January on the future approval of the Canary Islands law on Sustainable Planning of Tourist Use of Homes. In it, it indicates that the regime that is intended to be applied to control vacation homes in the Canary Islands "must necessarily be based" on "reasons of general interest", which must be "duly accredited". At the same time, it warns that it may generate the "replacement in the future" of small property owners by "professional" property owners.
In addition, it adds that "economic" motivations "do not fit", such as favoring the supply of traditional accommodation products, such as hotels and apartments already installed in the islands.
The CNMC states that it must "effectively accredit" that the measures taken are to alleviate the lack of residential housing, protect natural spaces and preserve the essence of neighborhoods and towns, as stated by the Canary Islands Ministry of Tourism in the explanatory memorandum of the draft law. At the same time, it urges the Area to indicate "how the specific form of intervention serves to protect" these points.
It also advises the regional Executive to "analyze the specific and effective impact in each territorial area", to pay attention to especially stressed areas and "modulate the intervention accordingly".
At the same time, it urges the Canary Islands Government to "make the pertinent adjustments" in other regulations, such as the Canary Islands Law 2/2013 on renovation and modernization of tourism in the Canary Islands to "facilitate the transfer of tourism infrastructures, whether hotel establishments or tourist homes, to residential homes".
Warning of the impact on small property owners and the creation of professionalized vacation homes
The National Commission on Markets and Competition urges the Ministry of Tourism to encourage municipalities to "carry out the necessary revisions" to "modulate the reservation of residential use in cases where it is necessary".
It also warns that the measures aimed at limiting the "double residential-accommodation use in homes", "distorts the nature of the tourist use home and represents a restriction on this economic activity". To which it adds that although measures are taken individually, "the combined effect can amplify its impact and could even lead to the activity of tourist use homes becoming residual" and generate "serious consequences in the competition of tourist services".
In this sense, it states that although it appears that "half a million places could be reached", twice the current number in the entire archipelago, with the proposed restrictions "many homes currently intended for vacation use could be left out of the market" and would affect "individuals and small holders of homes" when "settling" in tourist use areas.
The National Commission on Markets and Competition indicates that "a replacement in the future" of vacation homes of small property owners is expected by vacation homes "of professional property owners" or by other hotel or extra-hotel establishments and accuses the regional Executive of "incentivizing" it.
Thus, it asks the Government for "an in-depth analysis of the joint, potentially negative, impacts of the proposed measures". Meanwhile, it indicates that automatically suspending the qualification as a tourist home in areas declared as stressed "is not conveniently justified" and could be "disproportionate".
Ascav classifies the report as "devastating"
The Canary Islands Vacation Rental Association (ASCAV) has described this report as "devastating" in a press release issued on Tuesday morning. Thus, it has echoed the CNMC's warning, where it highlights that "what could generate serious consequences in the competition of tourist services in the Canary Islands"
In addition to the above, as ASCAV already pointed out, the Draft Law "includes disproportionate measures that are not justified". This is confirmed by the CNMC, which considers that the reservations of 90%-10% (80%-20% for the Green Islands) regarding the reservation of residential use are not justified in the Draft Law, since it should be the municipalities that should justify the most appropriate percentage for their territorial area.
Ascav has highlighted that "a new report, together with the multiple ones to which the Ministry of Tourism has already had access that discredit the Draft Law; and despite all of them, the Ministry of Tourism has continued with its anti-vacation home Draft Law, confirming, as ASCAV has repeatedly repeated, that the objective is to gradually but inexorably eliminate vacation homes in the Canary Islands and, fundamentally, depriving 90% of the owners of those who are small property owners, of the possibility of earning a living from tourism".
