Leading Malaga economist on the city's housing crisis: 'Restricting tourist rentals will not solve the problem'

It is no surprise that Malaga's Colegio de Economistas (the professional body for economists in Malaga province), known for its liberal orientation, is allergic to words like "intervention", "restriction" or "prohibition". "If anything, regulate, and be careful not to go overboard," said the dean, Manuel Méndez. Faced with the tourist rental controversy, the leading representative for this group makes his position clear: "We believe that holiday rentals are not the cause of the housing problem in Malaga, but a side effect of the lack of attractiveness and insecurity of long term rentals for owners."

For Méndez, the housing problem in Malaga is "one of supply and demand." "There is a lot of demand because many people are coming to live in Malaga and the population is growing. And as there is little supply, the price rises. As we cannot and should not act on the demand side, what we have to do is act on the supply side: more urban land, more housing." As regards rental housing, he suggests that there is only one really effective thing to do: change the law so that the owner no longer perceives the renting out of his home as a risk.

The dean believes that it is a mistake to think that, if tourist rentals were banned, Malaga would suddenly add 12,000 homes to the residential rental market. "It could happen that the vast majority of homes would not be destined for long-term rental because of the perception of insecurity that owners have."

Another reason for not restricting holiday rentals is that Malaga's hotel offer "is incapable of absorbing all the tourism that the city attracts."

Méndez, faithful to his belief that the market "is capable of regulating itself, perhaps not in the short term, but in the long term", is against any measure that restricts tourist rentals. "It can make sense to regulate; what happens is that politicians can get out of hand and, as it is a hot topic that generates a lot of unrest, they end up intervening in the market. Prohibiting, limiting prices, restricting... these are short-term measures, which in the long run are harmful to the market," he says.

The only regulation that Méndez acknowledged as useful is to "establish the minimum requirements that the properties have to meet in terms of surface area, services, quality... a regulation designed to prevent the existence of substandard homes." He is uncomfortable with the quotas that Malaga council is considering establishing in areas saturated with tourist lets. "We would have to analyse the specific areas very carefully." He is even uncomfortable with the council-imposed requirement that such flats must have independent access. "That would restrict the offer very much", he stated.