Spain’s war over holiday homes continues: Andalusian association threatens town halls with lawsuit over Airbnb measures

The Andalusian tourism rental sector is threatening legal action after being “wrongly scapegoated” by several city councillors.

Málaga, Seville and Cádiz recently announced tougher action against Airbnbs and tourist accommodation in their cities after a summer of protests.

These include the ban on holiday homes in the old town of Cádiz, Málaga’s requirement that holiday homes must have separate entrances, and Seville’s demand that 715 holiday homes be removed from the register.

However, the Andalusian Tourist Housing Association (AVVA-Pro) pointed out that holiday rentals only represent 2% of the property stock in Málaga and 4.1% in the province – well below the national and regional average.

In addition, they contribute 1.91 billion euros to the economy of the province of Málaga alone and 4.24 billion euros to Andalusia as a whole, even though tourists staying there make an even greater contribution to the economy.

READ MORE: WATCH: Angry protesters spray tourists in Barcelona with water pistols during Spain’s latest march against ‘overtourism’

AVVA-Pro President Carlos Parez-Lanzac also questioned the legality of the various measures to restrict tourist housing construction.

Parez-Lanzac criticised the lack of consultation and proportionality in Malaga’s current measures and threatened legal action to protect the rights of property owners.

“We hope that there will be no legal proceedings in Malaga and that further steps will be taken accordingly.

“We are in talks to see what the approach will be and we are waiting to see if the work of the last four years on zoning and setting quotas will be implemented, with the understanding that if the traffic lights indicate red zones, we will accept this decision of zero tourist accommodation, but also all activities that affect these tensions.”

Perez-Lanzac argued that other factors, such as vacant office buildings and slow urban development processes, contribute significantly to this problem.

Instead, the association president proposed alternative solutions. These included introducing zoning and quotas for tourist housing, converting unused office buildings into housing, streamlining urban planning processes, implementing zoning and quotas for tourist rentals, using co-living and other new housing models, and expanding public-private partnerships for social housing.