The Tourist Apartment Association on the Moratorium of New Licenses in Alicante: "It Jeopardizes Legal Tourism Employment"

On Thursday, the decision by the Alicante City Council to not grant new licenses to blocks of tourist apartments was announced. This decision has not been well received by the Association of Tourist Apartment Companies (Aptur) of the Valencian Community.

The sector's employers have criticized the council, claiming that these measures "lack technical justification and create legal uncertainty for investors who have acted in accordance with the regulations." However, their main concern is the impact on workers, stating that it "jeopardizes employment linked to legal tourism."

Aptur explains that out of the 53 blocks of tourist apartments, 396 are affected, a figure that "barely represents 0.22% of the total housing stock in the city of Alicante, which is approximately 187,000." They lament "the alarmist and distorted perception" that this moratorium conveys.

For the employers, the decision "punishes those who have invested in restoring built heritage with their own resources and revitalizing neighborhoods with tourism activity compatible with local life." They also remind that tourist apartment blocks "allow the preservation of commercial premises for small businesses and generate direct and indirect employment in commerce, services, hospitality, and maintenance."

Similarly, the employers insist that these accommodations "promote the revaluation of degraded neighborhoods and the return of private capital in areas neglected by public housing policies." They therefore label the council's decision as "incoherent" for "imposing arbitrary urban restrictions on those who have invested legally, assuming the economic and legal risk that all rehabilitation entails."

"These types of decisions, disguised as a supposed 'technical wait', do not solve housing access nor guarantee a more balanced city model. On the contrary, they undermine institutional trust, judicialize investment, and fuel legal uncertainty in urban development," criticize Aptur, who have filed a lawsuit against the current moratorium.