At least 299 apartments on Ibiza are used for illegal tourist rentals. Another 998 apartments are empty and unused. These are two of the most relevant figures obtained by the team from the Fundación Universitat i Empresa de les Illes Balears (Fueib) which is responsible for the collection of data for the compilation of a report on the housing situation on Ibiza and the update of the municipal census and housing census. A project commissioned by the Ibiza City Council and carried out mainly between May and October through door-to-door visits to the 22,579 dwellings in the municipality of Ibiza.
Most of the illegal tourist apartments detected by the surveyors are in the areas of the Paseo Juan Carlos I, the Marina district and Playa d’en Bossa. These apartments are those in which it was possible to verify the activity of tourist rental by finding tenants present who confirmed the situation. The mayor of Ibiza, Rafa Ruiz, has indicated that all the information of these 299 apartments will be transferred to the Consell de Ibiza, which is reponsible for Tourism, to inspect the properties and sanction if necessary. The Consistory has already provided data on the indentification of tourist rental apartments in May and September.
On the other hand he stressed that it has been possible to verify the existence of almost a thousand empty homes. “Surely there are more,” he said, “some homes in which many families on the island could live.” The highest density of unused housing is in the neighborhood of sa Penya, although the total is distributed throughout the municipality.
Ruiz is “convinced” that tourist use and speculation with housing is “the main cause of the distorted situation we are experiencing”.
At the press conference to present the data which will be used to prepare a report to be completed on March 20, the second deputy mayor and councilor for Mobility, Aitor Morrás and the project manager Sonia Vives also participated. The new councilman of Housing, Ricard Clivillé was also present. The mayor has indicated that the press conference was not given by the current head of the department because Morrás “led the department until now and was the driving force behind the project”.
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