Euroval Participates in the Alicante Plaza - Provia Forum on Residential Tourism

The Future of Residential Tourism: how to Regulate a Leading Sector without Discouraging Investment.

Residential tourism is one of the three main pillars of the sector in Alicante, the leading province in this type of vacationing. This explains the fact that the Costa Blanca is the national leader in the sale of homes to foreigners, who buy one in five properties here that they acquire throughout the country. It is also a sector that needs new regulations to combat intrusion and fraud, and in which traditional players are one step behind the new forms of marketing represented by platforms such as AirBnB or HomeAway. All this and many other aspects were discussed at the first Alicante Plaza and Provia forum on residential tourism, which was held this Tuesday at the Aldebarán restaurant with business people, politicians and experts in the field.

The legal issue is one of the thorniest. The General Director of Tourism of the Generalitat, Raquel Huete, encouraged all actors to "work together" to combat intrusion and "take advantage of this type of tourism, if everyone complies." Huete directly questioned the Secretary General of Provia, Jesualdo Ros, present in the debate, and member of the working group on residential tourism, which according to the provincial deputy and vice president of the Board of Trustees of Tourism, Eduardo Dolón, "is about to be built." "Our commitment to regulating the sector should not make vacation rentals difficult," admitted the representative of the regional Executive.

In this sense, Ros warned that foreign investment in housing in the province of Alicante amounts to 3,000 million euros per year. "Imagine the impact if these buyers are prohibited from renting the property during the months they do not use it: many would return, as has happened in the Balearic Islands." José Ramón Martín, from the Association of Property Registrars of the Valencian Community, considered that legal certainty is fundamental: "In Spain, in times of crisis, many investors considered going abroad and gave up due to the lack of security." According to our Technical Director, Álvaro Satué, "there can never be 100% legal certainty, let's look at Marbella."

The director of the Costa Blanca Tourist Board, José Mancebo, argued that "more than a sector in itself, it is a form of tourist behavior, and it is not new, although it is now more evident due to the platforms." Richard Hart, from Media Land, for his part, argued that the real impact of the sector is difficult to measure because it has a lot of momentum, and "there is a lot of underground economy, but the tax pressure is exerted on those who are legal." However, he argued that "it is a much more sustainable model than in the past, and the private company invests more in the promotion of the Costa Blanca brand than the Administration."

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