Expats Warned: Valencia Restricts Tourist Rentals

Valencia City Council has introduced a new measure to limit where tourists can stay, following an influx of visitors. The decision, aimed at reducing overcrowding in the city, involves a 12-month freeze on new licences for tourist flats, potentially extendable. This means tourists cannot rent apartments in residential blocks, though hotels, resorts, and existing tourist flats remain available.

Spain welcomed 85.3 million tourists in 2023, with 17.3 million from the UK, making it the second most-visited country after France. Valencia's move is part of broader efforts in Spain to manage tourism's impact. In April 2024, protests in the Canary Islands highlighted concerns about mass tourism's strain on local resources and environment. Similarly, Barcelona residents have raised issues about rising living costs due to short-term rentals.

To help calm the number of visitors to the country, Valencia City Council unanimously voted to freeze giving licenses for tourist flats for a 12-month period, with the potential of increasing the restriction. This freeze will mean that tourists are unable to temporarily rent apartment floors within a block that is typically used by residents in any part of the city.

While the restriction will ultimately limit the number of places that tourists can stay in Valencia, more conventional methods of accommodation are still widely permitted. The measures still welcome tourists to stay in hotels and resorts in and around the area, in addition to camping and caravanning sites. Visitors will also be permitted to stay in the many tourist flats built in Valencia, however the new restriction will limit the construction of any more in the foreseeable future.

Whilst the new measures in Valencia are likely to upset some holidaymakers, other areas of Spain are introducing similar restrictions in a bid to cut tourism. Residents argued that current methods of handling tourism did not respect the environment and put too much stress on local facilities, making it harder to live on the islands. Similarly, in Barcelona, local residents have complained that tourists renting apartments in resident blocks are causing the cost of living to increase.

In particular, short-term accommodation platforms have caused rent for locals to vastly increase in the city center, whilst water and electricity bills are on the rise. In a bid to deter tourists from the area, some residents in the city have erected signs on the beaches that state 'dangerous jellyfish' and 'falling rocks'.