Nearly Three-Quarters of Tourist Apartments in Alicante Lack Licenses

Alicante has 4,108 registered tourist apartments. Of these, around 3,259 are operating irregularly without the necessary municipal reports that would allow them to function normally. This is precisely one of the objectives set by the Alicante City Council to curb the proliferation of holiday accommodations.

Irregular tourist rentals are one of the main issues in Alicante. Although the city is not heavily saturated, there are areas where one in five homes is used for tourism. The Old Town is where the highest concentration of these accommodations is found, especially in the areas of the Benacantil mountain slope, near the Santa Cruz neighbourhood.

The 'Technical Study on Tourist Apartments', conducted by the Alicante City Council, provides an in-depth analysis of these accommodations, which are mainly concentrated in three areas: Old Town, San Juan Beach, and the Centre. The city has seen a significant increase of nearly 23% year-on-year in the number of tourist apartments.

However, many are advertised online without the necessary permits. The study estimates that there are about 3,555 tourist properties, with an average price of 107 euros per night, listed on a well-known tourist apartment website. One in three is managed by professionals, yet the most concerning fact is that up to 73% lack a license.

The municipal council's study asserts that about 2,596 tourist apartments in Alicante advertised online do not display the Generalitat Valenciana registration number. In fact, in the Old Town and Santa Cruz neighbourhood, where there are nearly 1,000 registered apartments, almost a third do not show this number on the platform.

This situation is repeated in areas with the highest concentration of tourist accommodations, such as San Juan Beach, the Ensanche-Diputación area, and the Traditional Centre, where between 60% and 75% of the advertised properties lack the Generalitat Valenciana registration numbers.

Alicante ranks below other major tourist cities similar to the provincial capital in terms of the number of tourist accommodations. In the city of Alicante, these types of properties represent only 2.2% of the real estate market, considering those registered with the Generalitat.

This percentage fluctuates depending on the area under scrutiny. The Old Town is one of the areas with the highest pressure from tourist apartments, with one in five homes used for holiday rentals.

In the case of San Juan Beach, the percentage is significantly lower, with only six out of every 100 homes on the tourist market, particularly in the area encompassing Países Escandinavos Avenue, San Sebastián Avenue, and Holland Avenue.

The study indicates that sections of the Old Town and the coastal strip of San Juan Beach "show a clear transformation towards intensive tourist use" and suggests that the high density of VUT could "affect the availability of housing for local residents."