The cessation of non-essential mobility and the closing of borders derived from the coronavirus crisis has hit the business of homes dedicated to tourist rental in Spain, causing many to switch to traditional leasing. However, the blow has not been symmetrical. While in Barcelona and Madrid more than 40% of these properties have carried out this transfer since the decree of the state of alarm until today, in the rest of the regions the percentage does not exceed 6%, explains Tolo Gomila, president of Fevitur, entity that brings together the regional federations of tourist homes, with some 186,000 properties in the portfolio. Thus, in Andalusia, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands or the Valencian Community, the trend is still residual.
Madrid and Catalonia (the two capitals for the most part) are two of the communities in which tourist rentals have more weight, according to data collected by different real estate portals, with percentages that are close to 20%. Andalusia is also included in this group, but while in this autonomy the majority of homes dedicated to this business are located in coastal areas, more spread out and eminently touristy, in Madrid and Barcelona they are in the city center, where there is a growing tension – in terms of prices and supply – around the home.
Therefore, says the president of the Association of Tourist Apartments of Barcelona (Apartur), Enrique Alcántara, these movements are perfectly understandable. “There is a total disappearance of the tourist demand, and we have the opportunity to fill that niche with other types of rentals. In addition, ours is a very flexible sector, which adapts very quickly to the type of demand we have, “he says.
The same is not the case in the other regions. In some such as Andalusia, explains the president of its Tourist Housing Association (AVVA), Carlos Pérez-Lanzac, the bulk of this lease is widely distributed in areas where there is no tension or access problems. “We have detected between 80 and 100 units a week that go from tourist leasing to long-term leasing, mostly in cities like Seville or Malaga.” It is a low figure, remember, since Andalusia has around 66,000 of these properties. “It does not make sense that a high percentage of the tourist housing in Conil, Punta Umbría or Estepona goes to residential rental, because they are places where there is no tension in the market and where there is no long-term demand,” he recalls.
Other areas such as the Balearic Islands, where there is this tension and this overstraining of households in access to housing, are not experiencing this transfer either. The reason, Tolo Gomila holds, is that they are areas that live off tourism. “If that tourism disappears, that tension also disappearsBecause the thousands of people who go to work there during the six or seven months of the season do not need a home. “
Industry experts have detected three types of movements: those that leave so as not to return, those that leave for survival but will return in the future, and those that currently withstand the blow. At the national level, the majority of owners are today in the third group, although the second is gaining strength. All in all, the federations recognize that the uncertainty of the pandemic and the fear of new upturns – with their corresponding closures – can cause many landlords to decide to go to the traditional rental to never return.
Correct tension
The transfer to the residential of almost half of the tourist houses in areas with high demand will not correct the market tension. “It would be highly unlikely that this process would solve the accessibility problem, since both their volume and their design characteristics are insufficient to alleviate the large demand bag that continues to accumulate in the most requested areas,” explains Paloma. Arnaiz, general secretary of the Spanish Association for Value Analysis (AEV). This is also what Gomila says: “In Madrid there are some 11,000 homes for tourist use, 0.8% of the residential park. In Barcelona there are 9,800, less than 2% of the park. The problem of access to housing would not be solved with these movements. ”
A one-year rental can last up to seven
The real estate portals are seeing, over the last few weeks, on average, an increase in the properties offered that ranges between 15% and 20%. In large part, they explain, these homes come from tourist rental, although there are no official data in this regard, since the advertiser does not know the origin of the property.
Most of the transfer, they explain from the Rental Negotiating Agency (ANA), would be taking place with the idea of signing seasonal leases for periods of one year, with the aim that after that period and international mobility returns, the homes can be recovered for tourist use. From ANA they recommend prudence, because if at the moment of recovering the house the tenant can demonstrate that this is his habitual residence, “even if the contract was made as temporary, the owner would incur in a fraud of law”. In this case, a one-year lease could last for five or seven exercises, depending on whether the holder is a natural or legal person. In these circumstances, “the owner could not recover the property beforehand to change its use to tourism.”
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