We knew the general intention, but we still had to know the fine print of the Reside Plan, the tool with which the Madrid City Council wants to organize the supply of tourist apartments in the capital. The Government of José Luis Martínez-Almeida has just released to public information the text of a regulation that will replace the one approved by Manuela Carmena in 2019 and which is currently being viewed with suspicion by both neighborhood organizations and small property owners. Tourist Use (VUT).
The Reside Plan formally consists of a single sheet of regulatory changes, although with a lot of content, according to the text to which Somos Madrid has had access. In general terms, it is more restrictive for the proliferation of tourist apartments than the Special Accommodation Plan (the one approved during the Ahora Madrid mayoralty) that it replaces: it allows VUTs in fewer places than currently and completely shields some spaces where those who Until the suspension of licenses for tourist activity, they could legally open these businesses.
For an Airbnb apartment to operate legally in Madrid, it needs to be registered in the Community of Madrid registry and obtain an operating license from the City Council, like any other business. What the council is doing now with this modification of the General Urban Planning Plan of Madrid (PGOUM) is to change the rules by which these licenses are granted or not. It is expected to come into effect next summer.
The philosophy of Reside Planwhich is what the Urban Planning area has called this legal change, is to separate tourist apartments from residential homes throughout the central almond, in the area that coincides with APE 00.01 of Madrid (the historic center) and that It covers the districts Centro, Chamberí, Salamanca, Retiro and part of Arganzuela and Moncloa. No building where neighbors live may house tourist apartments, without exception (until now, it was allowed in commercial basements).
The exceptions come, according to the approved regulations to which this newspaper has had access, in the possibility of converting entire buildings into tourist apartment businesses. There are no changes in those for tertiary use (those dedicated to offices, for example) that can be transformed into this type of accommodation, as has already been happening. The Reside Plan allows “alternative use in buildings with existing non-residential use”, but also in “buildings for residential use on levels C and D”, that is, those located in the main commercial axes. The plan approved by Carmena allowed VUT to be opened in these places, although always with independent access. That condition disappears now.
But the big exception raised by the Almeida Government is to allow the opening of complete buildings of tourist apartments in buildings for residential use on levels A and B, that is, those located inside the neighborhoods. Until now, Carmena’s plan allowed it to be done on the ground floor, ground floor and first floor, always with independent access, which in practice reduced the properties that could be converted into Airbnb apartments to local residents. The new Reside Plan allows tourism as an authorized use in buildings with levels 1 and 2 of protection. And for those at level 3 it allows alternative use. The condition for the latter is that the building be rehabilitated and returned to residential use after 15 years, that is, from the year 2040.
Neighborhood associations and opposition parties have warned that this measure could accelerate the purchase of entire residential blocks by investment funds to convert them into tourist facilities, with the consequent expulsion of their tenants. This trend has already been occurring without the tourist incentive in Lavapiés, Malasaña, Arganzuela or Chamberí.
On the other hand, the Reside Plan protects downtown premises so that they cannot be transformed into tourist flats. Specifically, “the transformation of ground floor premises into tertiary use accommodation premises is prohibited” and furthermore “on levels C and D the transformation of ground floor premises into housing is prohibited”, which means that in the main axes commercial apartments cannot be used for residential apartments either.
The danger of apartments in premises outside the center
As we indicated, the regulations are very restrictive in the historic center (the aforementioned APE 00.01), but are relaxed outside this area. The main restrictions are that “in the tertiary axes, the transformation of ground-floor premises into housing and the implementation of tertiary lodging use in them is prohibited”, within a list of streets that has already been made public and that expands the rule of the independent access to the rest of the city, which in practice will mean in many cases that to open tourist apartments the entire building will have to be converted for business.
For neighborhood associations, the experience of the current plan – the PEH – shows that the measure proposed by the City Council will cause the conversion of ground floors of buildings into Airbnb apartments to spread even further, as is already happening in large neighborhoods of Tetuán, Carabanchel or Puente de Vallecas, areas all of which are very well connected to the center of Madrid and where, at the same time, the prices of these places are relatively cheap.
Will the approval of the plan mean the end of illegal VUTs in Madrid? It is something that is in doubt, since the City Council is not managing to reduce their number, despite having significantly toughened the fines. Until the month of October, there were 1,153 more tourist apartments in Madrid without a license than in April, when the council suspended the licenses and increased the penalties. The number of inspectors is very low for the number of homes that open businesses with this format and, although the Urban Planning area has managed to get about 500 to return to residential activity, the rate of openings of illegal ones is much higher than that of closures. .
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