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Jesús Hinojosa / Matías Stuber
Friday, 30 August 2024, 15:56
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Complaints from residents in two brand new Malaga city tower blocks in the Martiricos district have led to the city hall calling for licences for 121 flats to operate as tourist lets to be withdrawn.
The conflict has arisen in the 30-storey twin towers that the developer AQ Acentor, part of German fund Aquila, has built in the neighbourhood just north of the city centre.
Over the last week complaints have come to light from some of the buyers of the 450 homes in these buildings about the tourist use of many of them. Residents told SUR that they have to put up with noise in the early hours of the morning, fights, excessive occupation of the swimming pool and bags of rubbish being left by the litter bins outside the complex.
The latest episode occurred last Monday, when local police and fire brigade had to attend and intervene because the tenants of tourist property had sprayed the contents of a fire extinguisher on the 17th floor.
According to data compiled by SUR, obtained from the official tourism register of the Junta de Andalucía, 141 tourist flats are currently registered in these two towers. To be precise, 111 of them are in the south tower, that is 44% of the 252 flats there. In the north tower 30 of a total of 198 flats have been registered as toruist accommodation. These are located above the two hotel businesses that also form part of this tower. Together the 141 tourist dwellings account for 31% of the total number of residential units in the two towers.
Of these, 124 must be deregistered by the tourism department at the Junta de Andalucía because they were registered after 22 February 2024. That was when the Andalusian decree regulating tourist rental accommodation came into force that expressly allows municipal councils to apply restrictions.
On 10 June Malaga's mayor, Francisco de la Torre, announced that only those flats with access and supplies (electricity, water, telephone, etc.) that are independent from the rest of the building in which they are located can be registered as tourist flats. In addition, he clarified that this regulation would be backdated for those tourist flats that have been registered with the Junta since the entry into force of the 22 February decree.
As such, according to data compiled by SUR, of the 141 existing tourist flats in the Martiricos towers, only 17 could remain licensed as they were registered prior to that date. The first of these flats on the 17th floor of the south tower was registered on 22 December last year.
Therefore the remaining 124 flats would have to be deregistered by the Junta because they do not meet the requirements for independent access and utility supplies. De la Torre commented on Thursday this week that the council has already asked the Junta to cancel almost all of them, 121, as part of their list of cancellations in many properties around the city. The list contains the first 1,120 tourist flats that should have their licence revoked for not complying with the municipal instruction and being registered after 22 February.
In response to questions from SUR, the mayor explained that this cancellation request was made on the basis of the decree issued last February by the Junta itself, as the flats in question "do not meet the condition of having an independent entrance and exit".
When could tourist use of these properties be abolished? The answer to this question is complicated because, as has been acknowledged by the Junta's department of tourism itself, the cancellation of these registrations requires a new administrative procedure for regional officials that has not yet been rolled out and thus could take months. "We are facing a new situation," admitted Gemma del Corral, the Junta's local tourism delegate, to this newspaper a few weeks ago.
The city council pointed out that, at the end of July, the municipal urban planning department sent the Junta the list of the first 1,120 tourist flats that must be deregistered. But how?
According to the Junta, a cancellation procedure has to be initiated, which implies the opening of a period for 'alegaciones' (claims and counter-claims), which will determine the time these properties can remain in operation.
Afterwards, a case-by-case analysis will have to be carried out until they are cancelled. Tourism officials have admitted to SUR that this process could take two or three months, although they have pointed out that they have been working with Malaga city council to "coordinate the cancellation procedure" of these properties on the Andalusian tourism register "with the maximum legal guarantees and the necessary respect for the legally established procedure, which requires the interested party to be heard".
In the meantime, the properties have a tourist licence registration number that gives them the green light to be marketed on the main holiday rental platforms. This is much to the despair of residents, such as those living in the Martiricos towers, where, following the mayor's announcement on 10 June that this type of tourist flat in Malaga city would be limited, almost 50 have been registered. The last one, on Tuesday 20 August, on the 23rd floor of the north tower.
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