On November 7th, the Catalan government approved a decree-law that brings significant changes to tourist accommodations in 262 municipalities in Catalonia. The new regulation imposes the requirement to obtain a prior urban planning license for tourist accommodations in these localities, potentially leading to the closure of 28,000 tourist apartments spread across 47 towns.
The legislation specifies that the affected municipalities are those facing challenges in accessing permanent housing or already having more than 5 tourist apartments per 100 inhabitants, or meeting both criteria.
This decree establishes that tourist accommodations must have a prior urban planning license valid for 5 years to be used for this purpose. It is the responsibility of the municipalities to adapt their urban planning to comply with this regulation.
The municipalities in these 262 affected areas cannot grant new opening licenses for tourist apartments until they adjust their urban planning to the new decree-law. This has been a subject of discussion due to current difficulties in obtaining permanent rentals, and now the time has come. The granted licenses will have a validity of 5 years, renewable. New tourist apartments wishing to establish themselves in these locations must request a municipal urban planning license and a prior tourist authorization before opening, both valid for five years, with the possibility of renewal.
As for existing and properly authorized tourist apartments in the 262 municipalities, their owners will have a period of five years to apply for the new urban planning license, counted from the effective date of the decree-law, or they will have to cease their activity. During these five years, the affected municipalities must have modified their municipal planning and, therefore, be in a position to respond to these requests, according to official sources.
The new regulation establishes a limit of a maximum of 10 tourist licenses per 100 inhabitants. Sitges complies with this regulation, so the new decree-law does not directly affect Sitges. However, all municipalities must modify their urban planning to expressly allow the compatibility of tourist use with residential use. This will only be possible if, at the same time, they justify having sufficient land for housing intended for the permanent residence of the resident population. Therefore, if the Sitges city council maintains the regulation of 10 licenses per 100 inhabitants, there should be no problem.
Did you know that the tourist license ratio was 10 per 100 inhabitants?
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Article by Living Sitges Inmobiliaria
