The Tourism Minister, Jessica de León, gave relief yesterday to hundreds of owners of tourist apartments in the Canary Islands who have been issued fines of 2,200 euros and sanction proceedings for using their properties on tourist complexes for residential purposes.
In some cases, owners either reside in the apartments themselves or rent them independently, without involving a tour operator or management company, as required by the principle of tourist exploitation unity.
The residentialisation of tourist complexes is a contentious issue that pits the sector against property owners who do not understand why they cannot use their apartments as they wish and are calling for a change in the regulations that establish the unity of tourist exploitation.
According to de León's announcement in parliament, the government intends to nullify these fines. To achieve this, they have requested affected municipalities to consolidate the regulations through a provisional ordinance to temporarily suspend the penalties, a process that could be implemented in the coming months.
Maribé Doreste, the president of the platform “Those Affected by the Tourism Law” (PALT), vehemently expressed that this measure is "absurd," emphasising the need for a law "that finally allows each owner to do what they want with their property." She stated, "It's good that they are stopping the fines, but what they should do is repeal the rules that punish people and force them to hand over the management of their property to a third party."
Although the issue of residentialisation affects all of the islands, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote are the most affected. These areas have the highest concentration of apartments compared to Tenerife, where over 60% of the accommodation offered is hotel-based.
