This afternoon another demonstration on behalf of housing will go through Madrid, but this time it will be the owners of tourist apartments who will demonstrate. The protest over housing prices on sunday toured Madrid and inaugurated a wave of marches – followed by Seville and Malaga, on November 9 – which always have tourist apartments as one of the main objects of criticism, who they blame for the problem of access to housing in the areas most stressed in the capitals.
It is the umpteenth time that the Housing for Tourist Use (VUT) They are at the center of controversy, after a very busy summer in this regard. In this context, the Madrid Aloja association, which represents more than 5,000 VUT in the Community of Madrid, and the small property owners platform MadVut, have called a demonstration at 6 p.m. in Puerta del Sol, among other things, to highlight who consider it “unfair” to hold the VUT responsible for the housing crisis when “they barely represent 1% of Madrid’s housing stock.”
«16,000 homes are not going to be the solution to this demand. It should be noted that in 2023 the same number of tourists were received as in 2019, so the increase in prices cannot be related to housing for tourist use,” the organizing organizations have added to Europa Press.
The main demand is to demand “fair regulation” for the small owners of this type of apartments in the region, demanding that the Community of Madrid have a regulation “that defends the rights of the small owners of VUT, who are gseverely affected by restrictive measures imposed in recent months,” according to the organizations in a statement.
Thus, they have criticized that the new measures lead young people “to confrontation with the owners, when it is obvious that the price is being set by the tenants themselves in their legitimate desire to obtain housing.”
«The debate is distorted and distracted to hide that the ruler has not known how to solve this problem, which, in addition, has worsened by implementing a Housing Law that demonizes the owner and that imposes the solution to the problem on the individual, without giving him security of collection and the recovery of the home in case it does not occur,” they have assured.
They claim their positive economic impact
From Madrid Aloja they have pointed out that the current restrictions announced by the Madrid City Council, such as the suspension of new licenses and the tightening of sanctions, affect «disproportionately to small VUT owners, who manage their homes responsibly and contribute significantly to the local economy.” Specifically, they have reported that in 2023 the VUT generated an economic impact of more than 2.2 billion euros.
The association has denounced that the current regulation diverts the demand for accommodation from more than two million tourists towards “large market players such as hotels and investment funds, harming the middle class.”
«Instead of promoting a diversified tourist offer, restrictive measures favor large monopolies, limiting the freedom of tourists and restricting the ability of small entrepreneurs to compete on equal terms,” they stated.
For this reason, it has demanded that policies be reconsidered and a “more balanced” regulation be promoted that not only guarantees coexistence between residents and tourists, but that “also protects small property owners and promotes the economic development of the city.”
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