Antoni Amengual, a councillor with El Pi at the Council of Majorca, said yesterday that the zoning for holiday rentals will perpetuate sun and beach tourism and is "the daughter of Frankenstein"*.
The left-wing parties, he observed, talk a great deal about tackling tourism seasonality, but the zoning will have the opposite effect. It will benefit coastal areas and will prevent the development and renewal of municipalities in the interior. He argued that the zoning will deter owners from rehabilitating old houses with the intention of renting them to tourists. This will be case in, for example, Ariany and the Ruberts part of Binissalem. The objective should be, he stressed, to revitalise interior villages and to promote local trade and restaurants. He claimed that the Council's zoning has used "mixed figures" and even some outdated ones.
The president of El Pi, Jaume Font, highlighted the unfair difference for owners of houses in rural areas and those with flats in coastal resorts. Depending on where, houses in interior villages will be eligible for licences that don't require renewing. In coastal resorts, and he mentioned Santa Ponsa, an owner of a flat will have to pay 5,000 euros per place in order to rent it out. If there are six places, then this will cost 30,000 euros, and the licence will only be for five years. It would then have to be renewed, and the payment made again. "How crazy is this, if you want to help the smallest owners?"
* It was the ex-tourism minister Biel Barceló who described the holiday rentals legislation as a "Frankenstein", when Podemos insisted on an amendment which placed apartments in a state of legal limbo. The amendment was itself subsequently amended.