Half of Benidorm’s tourist apartments are now legal

Regional campaign to legalised holiday lets pays off

DUE TO the Valencian Tourism Agency’s relentless campaign cracking down on illegal tourist apartments, now more than half of Benidorm’s apartments on offer to tourists are fully legal.

Over a 12-month period, the number of unregulated tourist apartments has dropped from 3,700 to 1,850. Aptur (Association of tourist apartment businesses), stated that this is thanks to the regional government implementing a new tourism and leisure law, on July 8, 2018, which obliged tourist apartments to be registered with the regional tourism board and to have minimum requirements. The law also states that sanctions for failing to comply can see the property’s owner pay fines ranging from €1,000 to €600,000 depending on the severity of the offence committed.

The tourism agency carries out constant and thorough inspections; hence, many owners have preferred to register their properties.

Currently, there are about 6,200 holiday homes listed with the Valencian Tourism Agency, although it’s estimated that there could be about 1,860 operating illegally.

The law requires that each council authorise the tourist properties in their municipalities issuing them urban compatibility certificates for holiday rentals, other guidelines range from contracting civil liability insurance, the provision of certain services to the minimum furniture that should be provided. Owners also have to pay social security and taxes.

Many properties have been registered, although the owners’ are not yet fully complying with the law as they have staff working without contracts and don’t have adequate insurance.

The trend for owners to have agencies rent their apartments is waning, and more and more owners are choosing to manage their properties themselves.