The rental of rooms in “casas payesas” (country houses) to tourists, as envisaged in the new regulations promoted by the Consell de Ibiza, together with the future reform of the Territorial Plan, could lead to a Maximum of 6,000 tourist places in this type of accomodation, provided that each of them complies with the requirements for providing this type of service.
There are currently some1,040 “casas payesas” (understood as rural houses built before 1956) in Ibiza. Of these, those on rural land land can now benefit from the regulation initially approved by the plenary session of the Consell, which allows three of their rooms (with two beds in each) to be rented out for a maximum of two months each year. However, those on protected land (especially in Rural Area of Landscape Interest, ARIP), will have to wait for a future reform of the PTI to be able to do the same, a fact that has already been announced by the island government team.
Thus, when both regulations are approved, there will be more than 6,000 tourist accommodation places will theoretically become available in the Ibizan countryside, whether it is rural or protected land.
In addition to these, it will be necessary to add another 40 country houses that, despite not being country houses as such, meet the cultivation area required to be able to accommodate tourists not only for two months, but all year round. These are the so-called preferential agricultural holdings, which may work towards a situation not very different from that of a agritourism. In this case, if all these houses were to take advantage of this possibility, they would add 120 rooms or 240 tourists in total.
At present, in Ibiza there are SOME 1,040 country houses, understood as rural houses built before 1956.
The Minister of Urbanism and Territory, Mariano Juan, however, recalled that it is difficult for all “casas payesas” to benefit from the approved regulations. He indicated that this is due to one of the conditions being that illegal renovations can not have been carried out on the property, such as extensions or additions without a license. Mariano Juan believes that many houses will not pass this filter.
Asked if this measure will not mean flooding the Ibizan countryside with tourist accommodation, he stated that, in reality, “no new places are created”, as the 6,000 beds that that the “casas payesas” will provide “come from the general pool of planned tourist places for the whole of the island ”, which amounts to just over 100,000, including all types of accommodation on offer.
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.