Jose Manuel Bermúdez, the mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, has called upon the Canary Islands Government to regulate holiday rentals to prevent entire neighborhoods from turning into “exclusive zones” for this type of accommodation, asserting that otherwise, the city will deteriorate.
The Canary Islands Government is in the process of drafting a law to manage the 47,000 tourist residences and 197,000 beds that have been recorded in the archipelago.
Speaking to COPE Tenerife, as reported by EFE, Bermúdez has estimated that in the capital, there are over 5,000 accommodation spaces in existing holiday homes, which is more than double the number of hotel beds. He emphasized the necessity to “impose constraints” and “establish criteria.”
Bermúdez expressed that it is “abnormal” for holiday rentals to remain “unregulated,” and in the absence of regulation, he continued, the municipal councils are unable to take action, as all the initiatives related to the regulation by the autonomous communities have been rejected by the courts.
The mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife emphasized that holiday rentals can be either an opportunity or a problem, contingent on proper regulation, as “one cannot allow any residence to be classified as a holiday home. “Constraints need to be established and order needs to be implemented.”
“Constraints need to be established, order needs to be implemented to establish a standard, and certainly, to prioritize service quality and typology,” he added.
