Junta de Andalucía cancels almost 4,000 holiday let licences in a year in Malaga province
As for the wider region, 10,300 licences for holiday rental properties have now been cancelled after checking them for compliance against all regulations, including coordinating with municipal authorities for local restrictions
Following the signing of call-to-action agreements with city councils in some of the provincial capitals, Andalucía's regional government has strengthened its controls on tourist accommodation, cancelling a total of 10,300 tourist licences on holiday let properties region-wide as of last year and up to this August, following the inspection, regulation and planning measures implemented by the Junta in coordination with said councils.
Of this total number of cancelled tourist licences, which includes those cancelled at the request of the local councils and by the regional ministry for tourism (Turismo) due to breach of urban planning or tourism regulations, 3,812 are located in Malaga province, according to data recently released by Turismo (the regional ministry headed by Arturo Bernal). Of the properties cancelled in the province and on the Costa del Sol, more than 1,280 pertain to Malaga city.
1,280
tourist property licences have been cancelled by the Junta in Malaga city alone.
The Junta points out that Malaga is the Andalusian province with the most tourist licence cancellations, followed by Granada with 1,807, of which 988 are located in the provincial capital. Next is Cadiz with 1,352, Seville with 1,198 and most of these, 1,067 to be precise, are in the provincial capital. Almeria has 686 cancellations, Cordoba stands at 679, Huelva with 403 and Jaen with 329. The regional ministry stresses that 45% of these cancellations have occurred in the capital cities of Andalucía's eight provinces.
Bernal explains that "these figures demonstrate that our tourism management is not designed solely for the visitor, as we promote a type of tourism where the resident is a decisive factor when it comes to planning our policies." He asserts that "given the proliferation of this type of accommodation, we saw the need to work hand in hand with the city councils, who are the ones responsible for planning their city models." He also points out that the Junta has already signed six agreements with the city councils of Seville, Granada, Malaga, Cadiz, Jerez de la Frontera and Almeria to control this type of holiday rental provision. Bernal adds that similar agreements are in the process of being formalised with other municipalities, such as Cordoba, El Puerto de Santa María and Alhaurín El Grande. "Today's figures demonstrate that the work we have been doing is yielding results," he said.
