This morning the first meeting of the working group, made up of technicians, politicians and representatives of the sectors involved, was held to study the housing situation in Calpe. The aim is to analyse the different solutions within the municipal competence framework, in order to determine solutions and actions aimed at achieving the objective of affordable and decent housing.
Today's meeting, in addition to members of the Municipal Corporation, was attended by technicians from the Departments of Town Planning, Tourism and Social Welfare, as well as the architect Carlos Franco, representing the professional sector, representatives of the Calpe Business Association and the Marina Alta Business Circle CEDMA.
In this first meeting, some of the municipality's housing problems were discussed: the need to control and limit tourist housing, the recent suspension of the change of use from commercial premises to housing and the social problem of access to housing.
The mayoress began the meeting by pointing out the need to balance the housing situation in the municipality, "between all of us we must seek solutions without harming anyone, defending tourism but being able to offer decent housing". The mayor also stressed that "the suspension of the change of use of a commercial premises has been approved, but it has not been prohibited, the idea is to have a draft of the modifications that we can make in September or October".
The Head of the Municipal Area of Territory, Manuel Miró, stressed that "the problem in Calpe is that in all residential urban land, residential use is compatible with tertiary hotel use, that is, anywhere in the municipality there can be tourist housing. If this is modified, we will have to study in which areas both uses are compatible and in which areas they are not".
The Department of Territorial Planning has provided a study on the number of tourist dwellings and annual rentals in the municipality by zones, as well as the influence of the price of holiday rentals on residential rentals. It was also pointed out that in the town centre 8 out of 10 properties are only rented from October to May and only 2 out of 10 are rented all year round.
For their part, the representatives of CEDMA explained the situation in other municipalities in the Marina Alta, highlighting that many properties are second homes, so that for a few months they are enjoyed by the owners who rent them out for the rest of the year. They also pointed out that many properties remain empty due to the owner's insecurity when it comes to renting. CEDMA also stressed the intrusiveness and illegality of many tourist homes.
Toni Tur, councillor of Defendamos Calpe, highlighted the challenges faced by the trade which "often leads to the change of premises to housing being the only way for the owner to obtain a return on his property. We must explore all situations but differentiate the areas according to their commercial viability. In the old town, the change from commercial to residential would allow the reactivation of the old town, which is becoming more and more degraded, and at the same time would allow many people to have access to housing. There are premises that were part of a house 30 years ago and in these cases the purpose for which they were built would not be undermined. Someone who has bought a commercial property 10 years ago knows that it is for commercial use.
The Tourism councillor, Mireia Ripoll, stressed that "the difference between Calpe and other municipalities in the region is that here there is a mixture of residential and tourist use, the tourist use is colonising areas that were traditionally residential housing, both uses are more delimited in other municipalities".
The municipal secretary, Jordi Francés, also stated that "tourist housing is only one part of the problem, but it is not the only one.
We must go further, the problem is the lack of permanent housing. The legislation offers us many possibilities within the competences of the City Council to avoid gentrification" and he mentioned the legislation in force in this respect.
Juan Manuel del Pino, Councillor for Territorial Planning, closed the first meeting of this working group by stressing that "now a path is opening up in which there will be no turning back and which affects many other municipalities, there are tools in the law to offer solutions".
The housing working group will meet again next week to study new proposals from the departments involved.