Holiday rentals in Donostia are being limited and a guide has been presented to do so
- The Saretxe housing union in the Donostiarra district of Gros has presented at a press conference a guide to ban the implantation of more tourist rentals in the communities. It is explained that some neighborhoods in the neighborhood have already established or are in it. Gros is one of the neighborhoods with the largest number of rentals in San Sebastián.
It is explained that before the publication of the guide and in collaboration with them five communities have imposed a ban, and immediately after the hearing a neighbor has approached them with the same intention. They report that in recent years the presence of tourist weights has increased in the neighborhood of Gros, with “serious consequences” for the neighbors.
Thus, union members have offered residents and neighbours an “instrument” to limit tourist housing on their portals in a few steps: to ban the gathering of neighbours on the agenda; to vote on the item; to approve the 5/3 of the owners, to take the agreement in the minutes and to communicate it. Following these steps, under article 17.12 of the Horizontal Property Act, the installation of new tourist housing in the building is prohibited. This measure does not affect the existing tourist rents in the building, so it is recommended to do them before the implementation of this type of apartments in the building. It is suggested that with the support of the majority of owners there is the possibility of increasing community quotas to tourist homes.
San Sebastian more expensive than New York
Only through the Airbnb platform are offered 295 homes in Gros, and with the Center and Casco Viejo they concentrate 65% of the offer of the platform throughout the city. Moreover, since the pandemic the supply continues to grow. But this business is not within everyone’s reach: spending a night in San Sebastian via the Airbnb platform is more expensive than in New York, Paris or Barcelona. This is the case of a study recently published by geographers Haritik Tiraka.
Influence of tourist apartments in the neighborhoods
Saretxe reports that this type of rental has serious consequences for the neighbors, “the presence of tourist apartments conditions the daily life of the neighbors”. They mention, for example, the increase in rents and the need for neighbors to go through the neighborhood; according to the study mentioned, between April 2017 and September 2022 the price of ordinary rentals has increased by 23.26%, going from 12.9 euros per square meter to 15.9 euros per square meter. In this sense, the tourist rental offered in Gros has increased in recent years, but on the contrary, this neighborhood has lost 12.82% of the population between 2000 and 2020.
Before this, the members of Saretxe state that the facts “are not random and respond to specific class interests”. They stress that one of their functions is to “gain spaces” to capital and “the importance of the political community articulated in this process”.
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