The Federation of Neighborhood Associations of Valencia will ask the Valencia City Council for a "strong hand" with the management of tourist apartments after a summer of great tourist success in which even housing for tourists has emerged in spaces that were previously commercial premises, at the foot of street. “We see how old bank headquarters are now converted into apartments in which there is no occupancy certificate or smoke outlet or anything,” says María José Broseta, president of the Federation of Neighborhood Associations of Valencia.
He argues that these establishments have been “spreading through the city like a large oil spill, without us even realizing it” and warns of the problems that this is generating in different neighborhoods of the city. And there are numerous complaints that the Federation receives about this issue, confirms Broseta.
He points out how there are examples already in Benimaclet, in Cabanyal, in Russafa and even in Monteolivete, and “without anyone having done anything.” A reality on which the Federation will request action when the bilateral commissions that they agreed to maintain with the Valencia City Council are activated after meeting with María José Catalá last June.
They confirm the trend from the Real Estate Association of the Valencian Community (Asical), which reflects how this modality is occurring especially for tourist rentals, because it is where the law says they can be located. "In addition, it is not only happening in the center, but it is also happening with greater or lesser intensity in other neighborhoods of the city," the association explains. The same association praises this idea of transforming commercial basements into residences because, they believe, it would be "a way to alleviate the lack of residential housing supply."
Meanwhile, the president of the Federation of AA.VV. de València states that "currently there are very high rental prices that are expelling young people and also older people with meager pensions from their neighborhoods to turn them into tourist spaces (...) Not everything is worth tourism."
Broseta participated yesterday in the commemorative event that the Federation of Leisure, Tourism, Gaming, Recreational Activities and Related Industries of the Valencian Community held for International Tourism Day in a well-known establishment in the Marina. The regional Secretary of Tourism, Cristina Moreno, also participated in the meeting, as well as the Councilor for Tourism Paula Llobet, who praised the effort of the sector in an exercise with very good results.
Meanwhile, also yesterday Compromís-Sumar demanded that the Government reduce the massive entry of cruise ships because “they suffocate the cities and pose a present danger to the environment.” The deputy of the plurinational Sumar group of the Congress of Deputies, Alberto Ibáñez, has registered an initiative to “begin to politically assume the negative externalities of tourism from feminism, environmentalism and social equity.” Ibáñez maintains that “the cities with the highest rate of mass tourism are those where the price of housing is more expensive, which forces residents to be expelled from their neighborhoods,” therefore, “it is necessary to regulate and control the price of housing.” tourist apartments”. Asked about this issue, the president of the Federation of Neighborhood Associations of Valencia maintains a critical stance: “I think it is not quality tourism for this city,” she said.
