Madrid tourist apartment owners share their demands

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

The owners of tourist homes have asserted that they will continue their activity despite the Special Housing Plan (PEH) by the City of Madrid to stop the conversion of housing in tourist accommodation that has been approved in the House after having green lighting the committee, at the same time they have announced that there will be both individual and collective demands against the measure, because they are sure that the law will "protect" them.

"We are going to continue working because we are convinced that the law protects us.The problem right now is that we will go to court, there will be hundreds of lawsuits. It's pitiful because on the one hand, it is public money and on the other, there's private money involved as well," said one of these apartment owners.

The City Council of Madrid has approved its lodging plan that will affect 95% of the tourist housing in the Centro district by requiring an independent access road from the street.

This special plan for the regulation of tertiary use in this class of lodging aims to preserve the residential use of the urban center, slowing down the conversion of the center's housing into temporary tourist accommodation and, secondly, seeking to extend the lodging activity to other areas of the city redistributing economic activity.

For the owners of this type of housing, the lodging plan is "a prohibition plan that is masked in a regulation". 

"You only have to see what are the characteristics that are required, independent entries, elevator ... it is a prohibition in spite of the fact that politicians will want to talk about regulation," he specified.

At this point he pointed out that to access pensions, guests "enter through the same door" as the neighbors of the building. The same happens, he has indicated, with the homes in which they develop their professional activity as lawyers or dentists.

Short stay rental

In addition, he assured that they are called tourist housing "because it is a short-stay rental".

"It is for tourists and it is for non-tourists, because more than double they are not, they come to negotiations, courses, fairs...etc," he said.

On the measure, has indicated that they remain "exposed after many years doing this work".

"We would love to talk to Calvo (delegate for Sustainable Urban Development and all the councilors of all parties.) We have been trying for a year and a half, but when it comes to speaking, it seems that they have more trouble," he said.

Although, Manuel has indicated that they would "love to ask for a moratorium" and be "heard" because "surely there is a common space to reach agreements", since "this (the measure) is supposed to close tomorrow and put in unemployment for thousands of workers, because there are more than 10,000 tourist homes, and three or four affected by each".

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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