The number of tourist-use homes is growing rapidly across Europe, and in Greece they now outnumber the amount of hotel beds — an issue that could be soon to hit Spain
Holiday homes in Greece are outnumbering the number of hotel beds, putting the local housing market under major strain and sparking concern that measures to bring the numbers down could spread across the Mediterranean to Spain.
In Greece, there are around one million short-term rentals compared to around 890,000 hotel beds. Locals complain that the demand for Airbnbs has turned the rental market red-hot, forcing some locals out of their homes. In response, the Greek government banned the registration of new tourist homes during 2024. While only applying to specific neighbourhoods in Athens then, this year no more licenses will be issued to apartments located in more areas, including Kolonaki, Koukaki, Pangrati and Exarchia.
The new regulation also requires that all homes are declared, and large fines will be issued to ones that have not been.
In addition, property owners may be able to receive tax benefits if they change their short-term rental to long-term and permanent. The Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis hopes that this will relieve “the pressure on rents and increasing the availability of housing”, and thus address the housing crisis in Athens and other large Greek cities.
Other restrictions are also being applied to property owners, such as needing to obtain a professional license for all property owners with two or more tourist rentals, complying with safety requirements and regulations regarding ventilation and taking out civil liability insurance. However, the issue is also becoming apparent elsewhere.
According to the National Institute of Statistics, in 2023 there were just over 340,000 tourist homes in Spain, compared to 1.7 million hotel beds. Despite the figures being far apart, over recent years they have become closer and in 2023, hotels only increased by 1.4 per cent compared to tourist-use homes (VUTs) rising by 10 per cent, reports elEconomista.
Spain is one of the three largest countries in the Mediterranean basin, where a large part of its GDP depends on the tourist sector — 12.3 per cent — meaning the balance is hard to strike. Many nations which rely on the tourism sector are now attempting to find new models of sustainable tourism, while also balancing the demands of those whose livelihoods depend on holidaying visitors, according to elEconomista.
Among some of the measures across Europe to curb the rise in tourist rental housing is the elimination of the Golden Visa Scheme — where through which foreign investors could obtain residency — the restriction of licenses for tourist-use homes or the requirement to register short-term rentals in a specific land registry.
Yet with the number of holiday homes in Europe increasing by 60 per cent, from 3.9 million in 2018 to 6.5 million in 2023, the issue does not appear to be going away and soon could spread to Spain.
Throughout 2024, multiple areas across Spain were hit with protests where locals expressed discontent over the increasing issues of overtourism and surging house prices. As such, holiday homeowners in Spain will face new restrictions starting April 3.
Property owners seeking to have short-term holiday lets in residential areas will now need to seek approval from local residents, with at least 60 per cent of residents voting in favour. The changes to Spain’s property laws will be in place for both the mainland and islands.
