Overview
- Valencia’s council approved a final planning change that caps tourist housing to 2% of dwellings per area and limits total tourist beds to 8% of registered residents, with most ground floors kept for shops.
- New tourist flats, where still allowed, must sit on ground or first floors without residents on the same landing, have a separate street entrance, and win three-fifths approval from the building’s owners.
- The rules apply at the level of neighborhood, district, and even individual blocks, and they exclude Ciutat Vella, which already has its own plan.
- The PP and Vox majority backed the measure as Spain’s toughest and said it shifts the city away from mass low-cost tourism, while PSPV-PSOE and Compromís voted no and called the plan ineffective.
- Opposition leaders and the main neighborhood federation said the city has not set up data-sharing with regional and national registries or clear sanction tools, warned that illegal flats would persist, and cited thousands of unlicensed units despite 449 closure orders last year.