Of the seven postal codes of València in which its districts are located, there are four that are still free of offer of tourist apartments advertising on platforms such as Booking.com or Airbnb. They are the northern districts, such as Benifaraig, Carpesa, Borbotó or Massarrojos, but also Castellar-Oliveral, to the south. In the area of L'Albufera, Benimodo or Poble Nou, homes are registered, according to the municipal registry.
And although it may be perceived as a mere anecdote, for the Federation of Neighborhood Associations of Valencia it is very eloquent of what the city is experiencing. "Before there were only in the historic center and in Ruzafa, but now they have spread like a large oil spill," explains María José Broseta, president of the Federation, who clarifies that, "in no case are we against apartments, but of its disordered growth".
As this newspaper has already explained in recent weeks, the neighborhood community is beginning to show signs of fatigue in the face of the proliferation of housing intended for tourists due to its impact, they argue, on the housing market. Initiatives to address the issue continue, and if last week there was a debate in the La Raïosa neighborhood, this Thursday there will be another in Benimaclet about how to avoid them. The team behind the profile of @LaMataobras will intervene in them, a "citizen initiative" active on social networks that says "stop" to vacation rentals and tourist apartments.
This initiative is one of those that has explained in recent weeks how a change in the statutes of the neighborhood community can prevent the installation of a tourist home, an option that the Supreme Court has recently opened by ruling in favor of two communities of neighbors of San Sebastián and Oviedo.
And it is through this route that is opened with the communities of owners that the Federation of Neighborhood Associations of Valencia will appeal, which already works with the College of Property Administrators to give talks and disseminate the possibilities that the owners have among the neighbors. The Department of Tourism also appealed to this coordination and pointed out that city councils and communities of owners will be "main actors in the regulation of tourist housing", a regulation that is expected in 2024.
Likewise, Broseta explains, this will be a key topic in the dialogue table on leisure and tourism that the Valencia City Council and the Federation have yet to open in the coming weeks. Broseta anticipates that this call will arrive by mid-February, since before - at the end of this month - they hope to have met with the council, in a first round table on participation.
Tourist apartments have grown by 32.6% in the last month of the year in Valencia and squares, by 30.9%. In parallel, they have also increased their rates: if the average daily rate in online demand accommodation last year was 91.4 euros, it is now 113.19 euros, which represents an increase of 23.8%.
Over the last year, the city has gone from having an offer of 7,319 apartments in January to a total of 9,521 last December, the last month for which there are records.
