This Thursday, Madrid City Hall unveiled its tool to try to organize the supply of tourist apartments in the capital, where 15,000 of them currently operate without a permit. The way to achieve this will be through the Reside Madrid Plan, which was reported this Thursday to the Government Council and whose processing will begin in December until it is definitively approved, as planned, during the summer .
The plan will be applied in two areas, in different ways. On the one hand, in the historic center, delimited by the AP001 zone and covering the neighborhoods of Centro, Chamberí, Salamanca, Retiro and part of Arganzuela and Moncloa. And on the other in the rest of the city.
In the first zone, Housing for Tourist Use (VUT) will be completely prohibited in a dispersed manner, also in premises and will only be allowed in complete buildings, when they are not of a residential nature (for example, in buildings of offices). And there will be a small door open for “buildings classified in poor condition” to be renovated to become VUT for a limited period.
Concretely, these last residential buildings will be able to change their use into tourist apartments for 15 years each time they need renovation and thanks to a direct license linked to the rehabilitation and restoration of the building. At the end of this period, it will have to return to residential use and definitively abandon tourist accommodation.
Outside the historic center, VUTs will generally be prohibited in residential buildings, although there will be exceptions: they will only be authorized in residential buildings when the accommodation has independent access to the entrance gate. neighbors. And in the case of premises, provided that they are not located in important commercial centers of neighborhoods such as General Ricardos or Marcelo Usera streets, the mayor gave as an example.
The City Hall’s intention is to separate tourist uses from residential uses and to alleviate the “very serious problem” that exists in the city, where young people and families currently cannot access housing, even if they have one. have the financial capacity, stressed Mayor Almeida. out. .
In this sense, the City Hall will allow the transformation of 215 residential buildings in the historic center which are currently in private hands into affordable rental housing or colivings, with the aim of increasing the residential supply in Madrid.
It will also be permitted to transform tertiary buildings into housing, to which incentives will be offered such as granting an increase in constructability. In this case, they will not be required to have affordable prices.
Fines from 30,000 euros
Madrid City Hall assures that in October 16,100 tourist apartments are in operation in Madrid, of which only 7% are legal (1,131) and will continue to maintain their license with the new plan. For a VUT to operate in Madrid, it requires an activity authorization issued by the City Hall.
Currently, the granting of new permits is suspended until the regulations announced today by the mayor are finally approved. But the moratorium and fines do not seem to intimidate some owners who rent tourist apartments without a permit: since April, there have been a thousand additional apartment listings on Airbnb, even though their number legally cannot increase.
Almeida’s government has tried to intimidate owners of illegal SUVs, especially since April, when it announced the suspension of licenses and penalties from 30,001 euros to try to discourage their opening. He then calculated that there were more than 12,000 properties in an irregular situation, worsening the existing housing problem in the capital. Previously, fines of 1,000, 2,000 and 3,000 euros were imposed.
