New tourism law – which tourist rental will be legal in the future?

The new regulations on holiday rentals were published in the Official Gazette of the Balearic Islands by the Balearic Government at the end of July 2017. Until now, only the tourist marketing of detached houses has been permitted in Ibiza. The letting of flats, apartments or terraced houses to holidaymakers takes place in the legal grey zone and was not previously provided for in the Balearic legislation. With the new legislation, apartments and terraced houses can, in certain cases and subject to certain conditions, be granted a tourist rental licence, but infringements are liable to heavy fines.

However, the question of which properties can be rented out for tourism in the future can only be answered in part in a year’s time. First of all, there is a one-year moratorium. Initially, the Island Council (Consell) and the responsible municipalities are to be granted a period of up to one year to decide in which zones properties may be rented out to holidaymakers. Only then will new licences be issued. This means that since the end of July, the Ibiza Island Council has no longer accepted any applications to obtain a tourist rental licence in the case of detached houses. And since the tourist marketing of apartments has not been permitted until now, there can be no official licenses for apartments in Ibiza.

Therefore, at the moment the following differentiations must be made:
Properties that have already been registered with the Island Council can still be rented normally. Owners of detached houses who have received a licence for tourist rental from the Consell in recent years will practically not be affected, as the changes are minor. However, there is a large number of licences applied for, which still have to be processed and approved by the Island Council. If the examination reveals that the property does not have the required certificate of habitability (cedula de habitabilidad) or has non-legalisable annexes, the authority may refuse a licence and the application will be cancelled retroactively.

Apartments located in multi-family houses can be rented out to tourists in the future under certain conditions: First of all, one must wait for the zoning by the Town Halls and the Island Council. The authorities will determine in which areas tourist rentals will be possible and what quotas are available for this. In addition, requirements will be set for quality and technical equipment. It should be emphasised that in the case of communities of owners, the majority of owners must give their consent to tourist rentals at the owners’ meeting. A further innovation of the regulations is that owners can leave their otherwise self-used apartment to holidaymakers for a maximum of 60 days per year.

Seasonal rentals, applying the Spanish Rental Law (“LAU”), are made more difficult by the Balearic Islands Tourism Law: according to the law of the Balearic Islands, the accommodation of tenants for a period of less than one month is considered tourist rental. Therefore, every landlord must either have a registration number for tourist rentals from the Island Council in the future or prove that the tenants’ stay of less than one month did not serve a tourist purpose. Although a seasonal rental contract has been drawn up in accordance with the rental law, the owner is not allowed to market the property through portals such as Airbnb or Homeaway. Otherwise he is liable to fines of up to €40,000 and the authorities may order the temporary cessation of the business. In the catalogue of fines, a distinction must be made between a fine of up to €4,000 for simple offences (“sancion leve”) and a fine of €4,001 to €40,000 for serious offences (“sancion grave”). For particularly serious offences (“sancion muy grave”), the law even provides for fines of up to € 400,000.