The Valencian government official responsible for Innovation, Industry, Trade, and Tourism, Nuria Montes, has voiced concerns on Thursday about the central government’s focus on tourist-use housing. In the Community of Valencia, such properties account for 1.8% of the total housing stock, while empty homes exceed 14%.
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From her perspective, the housing issue in the country is less about tourist-use accommodations and more about the national housing policies that merit a thorough review by the central government.
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These remarks followed comments by Pablo Bustinduy, the minister for Rights, Social Issues, Consumption, and Agency 2030, who urged the regional administration to collaborate more actively in curbing illegal tourist rentals during a stop in Dénia. He linked these rentals to broader housing-access problems in many coastal towns.
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The regional response did not wait long. Nuria Montes, head of Tourism, urged the council to prioritize the vast number of empty homes rather than the comparatively smaller pool of short-term rental properties.
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The official emphasized that tourism planning remains a devolved task, with autonomous communities wielding exclusive competencies in this area. She noted that the regional government has spent a year requesting a sector-wide tourism conference but has yet to receive a response.
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New decree
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The tourism chief stated, “From the Mazón administration, and specifically from the Tourism Department, the groundwork is complete. In a matter of days we will publish the new decree regulating tourist-use housing to strengthen a responsible and sustainable tourism model that we are actively pursuing. Regrettably, the national government has not taken steps in this direction.”
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In response to the minister’s criticisms, Montes asserted that the only administration that has already acted on platform advertising is theirs, since they possess clear powers in this area. She added that there is no need for any minister to invite them to proceed.
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Moreover, she explained that when the decree regulating tourist-use housing passes next week, new obligations will require all communication channels to share detailed information about the dwelling locations. This data will enable the cross-checking of the illegal listing across platforms to identify all unauthorized offerings.