Update on illegal letting situation

[Janet]

The Daily Mail has published an article today about Spain's (and France's) plans to clamp down nationally on illegal letting, following the type of lead we have here in the Canaries. I'm referenced as being interviewed ... 

HERE

[Nova]

  

It's a shame they didn't interview you properly or the article would have been more informative 

[Michael]

The Daily Mail has published an article today about Spain's (and France's) plans to clamp down nationally on illegal letting, following the type of lead we have here in the Canaries. I'm referenced as being interviewed ... 

HERE

So am I right in thinking that this could lead to re-possessions and properties lying empty on a catastrophic scale? 

Like Spain doesn't have enough already? 

[Janet]

yes ...

[Michael]

yes ...

I was going to ask if they're fucking stupid but I think I know the answer. 

[Janet]

Thing is, they're convinced ... as they are in the Canaries, the Balearics and (I think) Catalonia, and whichever other autonomous regions have already adopted this policy ... that they can control tourism and force it upmarket, thus getting rid of the bucket and spade brigade and tap into the money available from the rich crew who, they think, are increasingly worried about leaving Europe, or who want the Dubai experience within a four-hour flight.

Given the Canaries' recenty tourism figures, this is not as idiotic as it first sounds ... but it doesn't pay heed to the potential social and economic cost of all those properties that were bought for "illegal" letting ... . Tourism might benefit, but there might well yet be other costs that they haven't factored in.

They haven't factored them in because they don't do joined-up government, see ...

[Perikles]

Tangentially relevant is this report in the Independent that Berlin has now decided that holiday letting in private apartments will be illegal.

Legislation which comes into force on 1 January will make it illegal for the owners of Berlin's estimated 12,000 private holiday apartments to rent them to tourists for short breaks. Those who fail to obey the rules risk being fined €50,000 (£41,700).

Does this sound stragely familiar?

Residents have become incensed by what they claim are noisy, backpacking and unwelcome weekend visitors arriving on Ryanair and easyJet. They are among the record 10 million tourists who will have visited Berlin this year. "They party half the night, use the balconies to call up on their mobile phones all the time, and they dump their household waste and bottles in organic waste bins," said Daniella Steltzer, a resident of the Charlottenburg district. "I want to live in a residential apartment block, not a cut-price self-catering guesthouse."

[Guanche]

Just read that P it has to be the EU and Brussels mafia behind this. Three countries all doing the same thing? I wonder if there is some deeper significance

[Janet]

No, G ... it's also America ... it's an attempt at control because people take the piss, and then one country does it and another thinks, hang on ...

It's already law in Catalonia, the Balearics and the Canaries, so Spain's following suit ... but America's already there ... . This is not the EU. In fact, those who can't see clearly still believe the EU will be interested enough to tell individual countries they can't do this!

[Michael]

No, G ... it's also America ... it's an attempt at control because people take the piss, and then one country does it and another thinks, hang on ...

It's the same old story isn't it though? Not only in this area, but every other. It's always a few arseholes that spoil things for everyone else.