Tourist apartments in the city of Valencia continue to grow unstoppably. In just two months, from February to April, the Visit Valencia portal has recorded an increase in the supply of more than 600 new properties, going from 10,286 to 10,854, an increase of almost 6% in an already very stressed city. Thus, the current available places are now 37,794, 2,500 more than in the previous calculation.
The figures were reported yesterday by the spokesperson for the socialist municipal group, Sandra Gómez, who criticized that the tourist apartments “continue to grow due to the ineffectiveness of María José Catalá who continues without taking measures because she is on the side of the speculators.”
In a statement, Gómez (now on his party’s lists for the European elections) recalled that, in March, the PSPV already denounced that, in less than a year, “the supply of this type of tourist accommodation had shot up 40% with 3,297 illegal apartments, which had increased with a greater incidence in the neighborhoods of working families.” Specifically, Gómez specified that it has shot up “by 67% and in a neighborhood like Soternes, by 211%, in Benicalp, by 107% and in La Saïdia, by 98%”, among other neighborhoods that he cited as an example.
And given the proliferation of this type of apartments in the most central and tourist areas of the Valencian capital, in recent months there has been an expansion of the phenomenon to other more peripheral neighborhoods with the problems that this entails related to the increase in house price and the difficulties of buying a house.
Given this situation, the mayor of Valencia, María José Catalá, pointed out that “it makes sense” to apply a moratorium on tourist apartments until there is regulation that guarantees sustained and sustainable tourism growth.
“I would ask the opposition to educate themselves and inform themselves, not to rush and not to mix churras with merinos,” said the first mayor. “Having a moratorium until you have the regulations and guaranteed sustained and sustainable growth, I don’t see it as incompatible,” defended Catalá, who pointed out that in Valencia there are two areas with temporary suspension of licenses for tourist apartments, Marítim and Ciutat Vella, and that there are to make decisions in these neighborhoods.