ALMERIAN municipalities Vera and Mojacar account for more than half of all legalised tourist housing in Almeria Province.
In 2016, it was announced by the Junta de Andalucia through a decree of housing for tourism purposes that houses available to tourists would be limited to 2,314 that have since been spread across 15 separate municipalities.
The two municipalities reportedly account for 1,224 of those tourist apartments with 616 apartments based in Vera and 608 in Mojacar.
Together, the two can offer an estimated 6,157 beds to tourists with an average of five beds per property.
The two leaders are followed by Nijar with 373 homes, Roquetas de Mar with 233 apartments, Pulpi, 160 places, Caboneras 86, Cuevas del Almanzora 42, Garrucha 38 homes and El Ejido 32 while Los Gallardos, Vicar, Turre, Arboleas and Zurgena account for a combined total of 13 houses.
The Ministry of Tourism and Sports has reportedly stated that the decree regulating tourist housing is there to stop the ‘unfair competition’ suffered by the hotel sector.
But according to Spanish media, hotel owners in the region still consider that not ‘everything is being done’ to regulate holiday accommodation rentals.
Despite no problems of overcrowding, they have reportedly voiced concerns over the increase of private homes for tourism uses and the ‘negative impact the offer of illegal accommodation is having on the region.’
They reportedly believe that this is due to the fact that “there are so few people assigned to monitor compliance with the norm and the legal offer is so great that it is practically impossible to uncover all cases.”
