In spite of the radical decrease of tourism caused by the pandemic, tourist flats still are important in our country. This is the conclusion that has been reached according to the facts and figures shown, some weeks ago, by the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE). This report indicates that, currently, in Spain there is a larger number of tourist flats than of flats with standard leases. This is a very significant fact because, due to the pandemic, the business of holiday rentals in Spain dropped considerably. However, we can say that it has been able to withstand in spite of having been affected. According to the INE, in six months Spain went from having 321.000 to 294.000 tourist flats which is a drop of more than 8%, meaning a loss of 27.000 properties. In this blog, at the beginning of 2021, we wrote an article about the facts and figures regarding tourist flats in Spain, and we pointed out that we still did not know the impact of the pandemic in this niche. According to the INE, there is an offer of 290.000 flats with traditional rental and this implies that the number of tourist flats still is above. We can say that in spite of the decrease caused by the pandemic in tourist flats, holiday rentals still are important in our country.

A GENERALIZED BALANCE

According to the Observatorio de Vivienda y Suelo, nearly all the autonomous communities strike a balance between public ownership of property and tourist flats, even though there are exceptions. For instance, the Community of Madrid has more than 28.000 properties of public ownership, whereas it has only 17.800 tourist flats, meaning a difference of more than 10.000 public rental housing with regard to tourist flats. Nevertheless, regarding Catalonia, it is just the other way around: there are 28.600 public rental properties in contrast to 54.600 tourist flats, meaning a difference of more than 26.000 properties which are tourist flat rentals. If we take a look at the rest of the autonmous communities, we can say that there is a balance between both types of properties, except in the Basque Country, Extremadura, Asturias and Andalusia where the number of public rental properties is much higher. On the other hand, the Community of Valencia, the Canary Islands, the Balearics and Galicia have a higher number of tourist flats. Logically, the favourite holiday destinations are the ones with the highest offer of tourist flats. 

TOURIST FLATS IN MADRID

If we compare the number of tourist flats with the total number of Spanish properties, then we can see that the percentage destined to tourist flats hardly reaches 1,2%. Regarding the capital city, the Central District comes by far top of the list, having a total number of 6.693 tourist flats. Next, and further behind, comes Barrio de Salamanca (with 1.061 tourist flats), and is followed by Chamberí (with 915). As for percentages with regard to the total number of Spanish properties, the Central District has 7,7% of tourist flats, Barrio de Salamanca has 1,3% and Chamberí 1,1%.

Picture 01: bearfotos

Picture 02: wirestock