Lloret de Mar wants to hire inspectors to find illegal tourist apartments

Lloret de Mar plans to include an item in its 2025 budget to hire inspectors to find illegal tourist apartments.

The councilor for Promotion of Lloret de Mar, Frederic Guich, pointed out to the Catalan News Agency that carrying out such actions is the responsibility of the Catalan government, but the local council will undertake the tasks due to lack of action.

"Since they do not appoint inspectors, we will have to appoint them ourselves," the councilor said.

Guich said that Lloret de Mar has around 700 homes that have a tourist use license but that do not use it.

Meanwhile, the council estimates that there could be up to 1,000 apartments that do not have a license to operate as a tourist flat, but does so illegally.

In spite of their efforts, the council says they don't believe they will catch all of the illegal tourist apartments, and therefore ask for involvement from the Catalan government in the fight against these businesses.

"Bad image"

Frederic Guich criticized this type of establishment as a major grievance on the city's tourist economy.

He says that these businesses don't pay the relevant taxes, such as the garbage tax where tourist apartments pay more than primary residences, and they even benefit from taxes that regulated businesses pay, such as investments made on public infrastructure with the tourist tax. 

Apart from all this, Guich believes that the lack of regulations allows them to offer much lower prices that "distort" the offer of other regulated establishments.

Such cheaper prices makes them more attractive to "an unwanted public" in Lloret de Mar, and he believes this "damages the image" of those who have put in efforts to focus their businesses on quality tourism.