Study: Tourist housing soars in Andalusia, generating more than €1.1M in the region

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

To the wide and varied hotel offers in the region, tourist homes have boomed in recent years

In Andalusia, this type of tourist lease has been practiced, especially in the beach areas, for many years and now after the implementation of the regulatory decree by the board the sector, has grown and professionalized. Only during 2018 did this type of accommodation generate an economic impact of 1,167 million euros in Andalusia, alone.

There are currently a total of 60,938 registered tourist homes in the community, offering some 316,707 places. Malaga accounts for 60 percent of these accommodations, bringing together a total of 35,134, the second province, although at a great distance it is Cádiz with 8,358 and the third Seville with 5,510. The rest of the properties are unevenly distributed between Almería (5,025), Granada (3,854), Huelva (1,443), Córdoba (1,410) and Jaén (204).

"The decree came out three years ago and there are still owners who are regularizing, it is a young regulation that has allowed the sector to progress rapidly, right now we have a solid, well structured and very professional sector. Tourist housing has matured, this is already it existed in Andalusia, it is not a new sector, but if it has become professional."

— President of the Andalusian Tourist Housing Association (AVVA), Carlos Pérez-Lanzac

Unlike other communities where large business groups control and manage most of the tourist homes in cities, in Andalusia, this type of accommodation is mainly in the hands of families who purchased the property as a second residence and now lease it under this modality to make it profitable. This generates a type of manager job, which the family hires to take care of all the necessary procedures to receive and fire guests. According to AVVA data, in the region there is an employee of this type of profile for every two tourist homes.

Most of these homes are rented through online platforms such as HomeAway, Booking, Airbnb or Spain-Holiday. The decree by the Junta de Andalucía only allows the accommodations that have the relevant license to be published on these websites and, in addition, the owners are obliged to declare to the Treasury, the amount generated by each of the reservations that the accommodations receive.

"This has caused that many owners no longer see tourist housing as the best way to lease their property, there has been an effect called, but it is normalizing. There have been about 1,500 voluntary casualties, so the homes will return to the circuit long season."

— President of the Andalusian Tourist Housing Association (AVVA), Carlos Pérez-Lanzac

The top agents of the sector have met in mid-month in Malaga at the European Congress of Tourist Housing, Vitur Summit, organized by AVVA in order to take the pulse of this booming sector, which does not stop growing at all the world.

"The first and only event in the world on tourist housing that has acted as a meeting point between the main European business leaders and the administrations and institutional bodies," said Pérez-Lanzac.

HomeAway took advantage of the event to present its VI Holiday Rental Barometer in Andalusia 2019, a report that analyzes in depth the current situation in which the sector is in the region.

Economic impact

One of the main conclusions of this barometer is that tourist housing generates a great economic impact in Andalusia. Specifically, in 2018 the figure stood at 1,167 million, of these, 836 million euros correspond to expenses during the stay, of which, 317 million are in products and services in local businesses.

According to Juan Carlos Fernández, Regional Director of HomeAway for southern Europe, the report highlights:

"The importance of this type of accommodation in one of the main tourist destinations of our country such as Andalusia, since more than half of home users tourists only valued this option among the different alternatives. "

This study also indicates that on average the total cost per trip of tourist housing users in Andalusia is 2,051 euros, compared to 1,134 euros of those staying at the hotel. Of this expense, 27.0 percent goes to the rental of tourist accommodation (553 euros) among users of tourist homes, while in the case of hotels this percentage represents 34.8% (394 euros).

Regarding the expenses related to the stay, users of tourist housing, on average, spend 1,498 euros in Andalusia, compared to 740 euros for hotel users. The average expenditure of stay per person by users of tourist housing in Andalusia reaches 390 euros, of which 240 euros belong to the item of expenses in purchases and consumption of all kinds of products and services.

For their part, hotel users spend 267 euros on average per person, of which 141 euros correspond to expenses on purchases and consumption of all kinds of products and services (61.0 percent near the accommodation).

These figures show that tourism housing in Andalusia is going through a good time, the sector has managed to professionalize and now looks to the future with the challenge of maintaining quality and following the path to excellence.

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

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