17% of the homes in Benalmádena are tourist accommodation

Seventeen per cent of the housing stock in Benalmádena is used for tourist purposes.

This is the main conclusion drawn from a study commissioned by the town hall to assess the impact that tourist accommodation and vacant homes have on the property market.

The municipal government has presented this document, prepared by an external consultancy, to opposition parties and has announced that its analysis - already under way - will result in “a package of measures in the short, medium and long term”. The aim is, in the words of the councillor for housing, José Luis Bergillos, “to tackle one of the biggest problems currently affecting our town and our residents, and which is, today, our main concern”.

The report has identified the existence of 8,209 tourist accommodation units, 85 per cent of which are located in the coastal area. After analysing the main sector platforms, it notes that half of them are not active, as they are not being advertised.

The report offers several recommendations on the optimal percentage of tourist accommodation in each of the three areas into which the town is divided: Pueblo-Capellanía, Arroyo de la Miel-Santángelo and the coast.

In the first area, eight per cent of homes are used for tourist purposes and the report recommends between five and eight per cent; in Arroyo de la Miel, it advises five per cent, one point more than at present; and on the coast it recommends 16 per cent, just 0.66 points more than the current figure.

Finally, the council has stated that the project for the plot it has acquired in Rocas Blancas will be put out to tender “imminently”, enabling interested companies to build up to 230 units of subsidised housing there. It has also said that construction will begin this year, by the developer Urbania, on a residential project of more than 300 properties, which includes around 6,500 square metres of green areas and 1,500 square metres of facilities.