Tourist licence moratorium to be extended for another six months

It has been reported by xabia.com that the town hall’s next municipal plenary session will debate and vote on the extension of the moratorium on the granting of tourist licenses in the municipality, thus extending the suspension for a further six months. This measure, which limits the growth of the tourist rental housing market in the town, was motivated by the need to continue gathering information and working on a more detailed report on the current status of tourist rental housing.

The issue of tourist licences was suspended six months ago when a working committee was created with representatives from all tourism sectors and political parties to contribute proposals and suggestions to the study that was to be conducted to determine what control measures to implement. According to municipal sources, between 500 and 600 tourist licenses were cancelled during this period, although Xàbia still has more than 5,000 legal tourist homes.

After working on the study and submitting the report with its conclusions, it has been decided to continue with the suspension of tourist licenses, mainly because a clear position on how to implement specific restriction or prohibition measures has still not been determined and that justification is required for the decisions that are to be made.

To this end, the six-month extension will allow for continued information gathering and evaluation of the effectiveness of some previous measures, allowing their gradual implementation to observe their effects, as was done when the rise in the rubbish collection tax was implemented earlier this year.

The responsible department has pointed out that it is the government team’s intention was to cause as little harm to the sector as possible, hence the six-month moratorium. It added that Xàbia has been one of the few municipalities to take this short-term measure and allow the sector to take advantage of this new summer season.

Among the actions planned for these additional six months is the collection of police reports on complaints generated by the licensed tourist properties. It was confirmed that there is evidence that the number of complaints decreased in the previous period, but was a need to understand and justify this measure further.

However, the decision to extend the moratorium for another six months, thus encompassing the summer season, has generated controversy, especially among companies in the tourist rental sector. Business owners oppose the decision, arguing that the previous six months have been sufficient to reach agreements and make decisions, adding that the extension will only generate more uncertainty and harm those who operate legally and in compliance with regulations.

Business leaders claim that paralyzing the situation for another six months due to the government’s inability to make decisions will only lead to more ‘non-tourist’ reservations lasting more than 10 days, making control even more difficult and encouraging deregulation. Furthermore, representatives of tourism companies point out that the real problem lies in the sale of properties, which makes it difficult to transfer the tourist registration number to the new owner.