6 EWN 27 April - 3 May 2023
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NEWS
APARTMENT BLOCKS: Are being built for letting only.
However, spokespeople for the association are also wary about the new Housing Law re cently approved by the Spanish government that sets maxi mum limits on how much land lords can charge their tenants, which they fear could make the scheme less attractive for in vestors. “When the Catalan housing law was passed, up to 30 per cent of longterm rent proper ties disappeared in Barcelona” warns association vicepresi dent Natàlia Bueno, adding that the restrictions encouraged many property owners to switch to holiday lets to make more money. Sra Bueno also points out that the new national law tight
ens up the conditions for eject ing nonpaying tenants includ ing the possibility of delaying evictions for up to two years. “All this discourages owners from renting out their proper ties, which means that all these build to rent projects could fi nally end up for sale,” predicts the association vicepresident.
80% of waste items found on Spanish beaches is plastic.
NEW legislation has been passed to improve working conditions for hotel room cleaners. Establishments will now be required to specify the maximum number of rooms that each ‘kelly’ as these workers are known in Spain can clean during their regular working day. The aim of the ruling, pre sented jointly by the Balearic Islands Government, the Mallorca Hotel Business Fed eration and trades unions
UGT and Comisiones Obr eras, is to put an end to the excessive workloads and abusive conditions faced by these employees. Controls will be carried out this summer to ensure that hotels are abiding by the rules, although the unions admit that it will not be easy to guarantee that the condi tions are kept. An estimated 20,000 ‘kellys’ are expected to bene fit from the measure throughout the Balearic Is
PALMA’S Municipal Sports Institute (IME) will save more than €700,000 a year on electricity bills thanks to a new contract signed this week with the municipal ener gy board (EMAYA). It is the latest in a series of local bodies to switch to EMAYA, after the municipal chil dren’s school board and the housing board. The IME is one of the council depart ments with the highest electricity con sumption, accounting for more than 6 per cent of the town hall’s total. Its yearly bill was higher than €2 million, but thanks to the new deal signed with EMAYA it will drop to €1.3 million according to current market prices. The savings are expected to be even greater once the INE’s
lands this summer. Balearic Islands President Francina Armengol declared during the presentation of the new ruling at the region al government headquarters in Palma that she is “proud that a tourism law agreed by all parties for the first time focuses on the health of workers.” Sra Armengol added that the next step is to extend this type of legislation to all other hotel sector employ ees.
Reduction on electricity bills
gas supply is also switched over to the mu nicipal supplier. EMAYA became Palma Council’s official electricity and gas supplier in 2022, found ed with the aim of improving energy effi ciency and boosting the use of renewable sources. Once all the municipal departments and bodies switch over to EMAYA throughout this year, the council is expected to save around €4.8 million in its yearly electricity and gas bills.
Palma population to grow by 60,000
PALMA council predicts that the city’s population will in crease by 60,000 over the next 20 years. The town hall approved the new General Town Plan, which foresees a ‘moderate’ growth over the next two decades compared to the 120,000 increase registered over the last 20 years, ac cording to Palma mayor José Hila. Despite the predicted pop ulation rise, the Town Plan suggests that all the afford able housing, green area, in frastructure and services re quirements will be covered without any major problems. Interestingly, the docu ment states that 70 per cent of the increase in said re quirements will be covered by existing facilities through restoration, regeneration and other improvements. In fact, the Town Plan re duces the total surface area classed as suitable for con struction to nearly half of the amount established by the previous document of 1998, dropping from 494 hectares to 280.
Image by Mitya-africa/Shutterstock
BUILD TO RENT housing devel opments are taking off in Mal lorca. Several apartment blocks built entirely for letting and not for sale are well underway on the island, including more than 300 new homes nearing com pletion in the Nou Llevant area. The build to rent properties currently under construction or in the planning phase in Mallor ca are aimed at the luxury and highincome markets, with no plans as yet for lower budgets. One of the most interesting developments is a group of five apartments built inside a reno vated 14th century manor house in Sant Jaume neigh bourhood in Palma. Among the services on offer for the future tenants are a community spa, wine cellar, swimming pool, garden and an exclusive apartment for guests, all for €7,500 a month. According to the Balearic Is lands Association of Property Agents, the build to rent scheme is “vital to solve the problem of lack of property to let in Mallorca.”
Image by TK Kurikawa/Shutterstock
Build to rent takes off Better working conditions for ‘kellys’
PALMA: The number of new houses to be built has doubled.
The 235 declassified hectares are located in low density residential growth areas such as Son Gual, Pun tiró and Génova. Despite this surface reduc tion, the number of new houses to be built doubles under the new plan and the number of councilowned housing is multiplied by four. This is reportedly made possible because the popula tion density per hectare is in creased from five inhabi tants under the previous Town Plan to 75 in the new one. More than 800 allegations and modifications were filed against the first draft of the
Town Plan presented in November 2021, of which 60 per cent were accepted and included in the final docu ment. Among them was the de classification of urban land in Son Sardina, Sa Indioteria Sud, Son Cladera Nord and Sud, Son Pardo and Puigdor fila Sud. In the case of the latter area, original plans to build 800 new houses have been reduced to less than half. Protection of rustic land, Natural Interest and Scenic Interest Areas has also been stepped up, with nearly 8,230 hectares of rustic land now officially protected.
