The tourism and business sector of Girona has today denounced the enormous economic impact that the application of the new regulation of housing for tourist use that the Generalitat has approved by decree will have on the demarcation.
They estimate that the elimination of more than 17,000 tourist apartments that corresponds to the province of Girona will mean the loss of half a million people in the summer and some 5,000 jobs are at risk of disappearing if a rule is applied that the Parliament now has a month to validate.
The tourism and business sector announces that they will take "legal measures" to stop a measure that they call "populist" and "ineffective" to solve the housing problem that Catalonia has and harshly criticize the councilor Ester Capella for promoting a rule "with her back turned" to the sector and that they consider "that it has been done with their feet".
The province concentrates 40% of all tourist homes in Catalonia. There are more than 45,500 units. The new regulation would force the elimination of 17,000 homes of this type throughout the province.
"Some municipalities will lose up to 2,000 units, without having other accommodation alternatives", emphasizes Antoni Garcia, first vice-president of the Tourist Association of Costa Brava-Pyrenean Apartments in Girona, who points out that several municipalities on the Costa Brava do not have more to offer accommodate their tourists than the tourist apartments.
It also happens that 40% of the users of this type of accommodation are nationals. "It is very likely that this demand will be diverted towards other tourist accommodations but also towards other destinations or regions," he says.
There is another case that differentiates the demarcation from other cities is that 74% of the tourist apartments in the province are second homes. "This means that very few of the 17,000 apartments that will be canceled will become part of the housing emergency," says Garcia, who estimates that 5,000 jobs are at risk with this measure.
The sector affirms that the group that spends its holidays in this type of accommodation spends in shops, restaurants and supermarkets and predicts a serious impact on the business community. "This measure does not take into account the reality of the municipalities of Girona," emphasizes Garcia.
From the Girona Tourism Board, an organization that brings together the business employers of the Federation of Business Organizations of Girona (FOEG) and Pimec, among other organizations, they report that the rule promoted by the Government in some cases will have the opposite effect to that has been designed
Lluís Torrent, member of this board, gives the example of the cities of Figures and Girona, where there may be more residential rental problems than there are currently. He explains that in the capital of Alt Empordà there are currently 299 tourist apartments, but that the norm allows them to grow to 4,709. Girona could go from the current 760 to more than 10,000.
Torrent denounces the impact that the rule will have in municipalities such as Begur, Port de la Selva, Llançà, l'Escala, Pals or Torroella de Montgrí. In Pals, for example, he reports that more than 5,540 beds in tourist apartments will be lost. The municipality has a small hotel offer, made up of 642 beds. L'Escala, with 897 hotel beds, will lose more than 10,800 places for tourist use.
"The negligence of the Ministry and this government has been passed on to the tourism sector, since until now nothing had been done to correct the problem of urban housing," says Torrent, who regrets that the New York model appears in the decree. York or other cities that "have nothing to do with the Costa Brava".
One of the sectors that is already beginning to notice the impact of a rule that has not yet come into force is the real estate market. The president of the API of Girona, Joan Company, explains that since this Thursday they have noticed that some clients who were interested in acquiring an apartment for a second residence to use for investment are now waiting.
Company regrets that the Generalitat decree "applies the same medicine" to all municipalities, without taking into account their particularities. "The reality of Barcelona or Girona is not the same as that of Colera or Begur," says Company.
He believes that what the Government should do is apply "structural measures" such as increasing the public budget for housing or reaching alliances with the private sector to offer public housing at an affordable price.
