It’s true, they really don’t have a clue how many illegal holiday lets there are

There are a lot of illegal lets

There are a lot of illegal lets | Photo: MDB Digital

| Palma |

Hard as they may try not to, various ‘authorities’ manage to end up contradicting each other when placing a number on how many illegal holiday lets there are in Mallorca / the Balearics. This assumes that they do actually offer a number, and not all do. In this regard, let’s start with the Balearic tourism minister, Jaume Bauzá. Asked recently if he had any idea how many illegal lets there were, he replied: “We don’t have any figures or rough estimates, but we do know that in large population centres like Palma and Ibiza, there are bound to be a lot. The feeling is that the volume of illegal lets there is considerable.”

So there we have it. There are a lot of illegal lets. But there may not be for very much longer, because “millions of euros” (including tourist tax funds) have been made available to island councils in order to increase the number of inspectors. Millions for dealing with a lot. How many millions are actually required for a lot? Anyone care to guess?

The minister’s lot was in some ways a bit odd. Had he forgotten what the Tax Agency and island councils reckoned they had uncovered some fourteen months ago? Around 8,700 illegal holiday lets in the whole of the Balearics. And it had been government colleagues (and possibly also himself) who had set the councils and the agency the task of coming up with a number the previous September.

This said, the minister may not have been wholly convinced. The councils and the agency had been cross-referencing properties that were either registered or not with payment (or not) of the tourist tax. Not being the owner of an illegal let, or a legal one for that matter, I can’t vouch for the thought process, but if I did have an illegal let, the last thing I would be doing would be declaring tourist tax income. Or any income.

But would 8,700 have constituted a lot? Maybe, and rather more of a lot than Spain’s consumer affairs minister, Pablo Bustinduy, came up with in February this year. There were some 7,000 illegal lets in the Balearics, he informed the Balearic Government. And he provided a file with the data. Had Bauzá himself suitably filed the report? Bustinduy is after all a Sumar politico, having formerly been part of the fluffy, Iñigo Errejón wing of Podemos.

The Council of Mallorca’s tourism councillor, José Marcial Rodríguez, has at least been willing to give Bustinduy’s 7,000 some houseroom. Many of these, he noted a month ago, “coincide with those we are already working on”. And what are these? All the illegal lets in Mallorca. Some time around the end of the summer season, the councillor suggested, he would have a number. This will only be for Mallorca, but it will be something, and it may well turn out to be a lot, depending on how one (and the minister) wishes to define a lot.

The Bustinduy 7,000 seemingly accepted as something of a ballpark figure by Rodríguez, if not mentioned by Bauzá, we last week had the mayor of Palma, Jaime Martínez, blow that number out of the water. There were 15,000 illegal lets in Palma alone, he maintained, before later clarifying (?) that he had been referring to adverts for illegal lets. As there are adverts on different platforms, he didn’t know the real number. “Illegal listings are very difficult to quantify,” the former Balearic tourism minister admitted, usefully adding that there are some 50,000 illegal listings in Mallorca, some of which, or perhaps even many of which will be repeats.

They are indeed difficult to quantity, which is why no one can come up with an accurate number, except Rodriguez later this year. However, he had added the caveat of illegal lets being advertised through channels other than websites like Airbnb, something that first came to be realised a couple of years ago.

So, how will the Council be able to track these? Will it be able to at all? Meanwhile, Airbnb has suddenly assumed some responsibility and agreed to a system which, the Council has intimated, will make it impossible for there to be illegal ads. That’s the theory anyway. Airbnb isn’t unique, but if it genuinely does eliminate all illegal ads, then the number won’t be as much of a lot as we might all think, including the minister. No, but then they’ll all be advertised on social media, being posted when the inspectors are tucked up in bed or on the beach over the weekend.

I’m only guessing, but somewhere in the bowels of the Council of Mallorca and/or the tourism ministry, there must be eggheads armed with AI and Big Data tools trawling the entire cybersphere in seeking the ultimate answer to the ultimate question. How many illegal lets really are there? And once revealed, then what? Well, they’ll all be fined. On this, the Council last week flatly denied an opposition claim that sanctions data had been falsified. 2.3 million euros had been collected and 5.5 million euros’ worth were being processed. That’s quite a lot.

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