Malaga authorises three tourist flat complexes days before three-year moratorium comes into effect

Construction

Two projects in the historic centre and another in the Girón-Las Delicias area received their building permits from the urban planning department in June

Jesús Hinojosa

Until the moratorium on tourist flats and hotels on residential plots in Malaga comes into effect, as expected in the coming days, the municipal planning department (Urbanismo) can continue authorising projects that were already in the permitting process.

In June, Urbanismo granted building permits for three new flat complexes, two in the city centre and one in the Girón-Las Delicias area.

The latter project concerns a plot of land on Calle Luis Carreras 12, very close to the well-known Inma ice cream parlour. It will be a newly constructed building developed by a company from Jaén. It will house eight tourist flats in one of the most densely populated areas in the west of the city.

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• Tourism

  • The city council wants to close the door on that possibility as soon as possible. It plans to initially approve in the coming days an amendment to the PGOU that will change the regulations, so that tourist use will no longer be considered an alternative to residential use.

    The start of the process for this amendment entails a three-year moratorium (or until the final approval of the plan to regulate these tourist uses) during which no new flat complexes or hotels will be approved.

    However, the moratorium will not affect projects that had already applied for planning permission or had already begun the planning process before the council publishes the agreement in the provincial official gazette.

    In June, Urbanismo also granted permission for the building on Calle Nueva, on the corner of Calle Duende, which until now housed seven flats, to be renovated and converted into seven tourist flats. A company from Granada is behind this project in a building with first-grade architectural protection, meaning its facade and ironwork must be preserved.

    Last month, a renovation project for a narrow building on Calle Carretería 41 also received a permit to house four tourist flats. The project to convert the building into residential units began a decade ago, but four years ago it switched to creating tourist flats.

    Last week, Mayor Francisco de la Torre announced that the temporary ban on hotels and other establishments on residential land would take effect in about ten days. It now appears, however, that this plenary session will finally take place next week, as the draft amendment is still within the period for submitting amendments by the municipal political groups.

    In any case, the local ruling team intends to convene it as soon as possible so that the temporary suspension of new permits for tourist establishments can take effect soon.

    Ground-floor premises conversion into housing

    The amendment to the PGOU also includes a section on converting commercial premises into housing.

    In June alone, Urbanismo authorised 37 residential units in commercial ground-floor spaces throughout the city.

    There will be no moratoriums for these types of reforms, but the city council does intend to regulate them through this amendment. Certain conditions will apply once the amendment comes into effect, which could still be several years away.

    To allow a commercial premises to be converted into a home, the property must meet a new depth requirement. The building must not be deeper than twice the width of its facade. The city council says this rule ensures proper natural light reaches the interior. It also bans any new home from directly adjacent storage rooms within the same registered property.

    The new rules also set strict standards for mezzanines and lofts. Anyone who wants to use a mezzanine as living space must ensure it covers at least 8.75 square metres.

    They also ban such conversions on the city's main streets and squares.

    Following the latest announcement, deputy spokesperson for Con Málaga Toni Morillas criticised Urbanismo for granting permits for another 19 tourist flats in Malaga. She also denounced the PP party in office for applying "the same speculative model that has worsened the housing crisis in Malaga".

    Morillas stated that converting commercial premises into housing is a subterfuge for creating tourist accommodations, "draining neighbourhoods of activity and reducing opportunities for access to housing".

    Read dedicated local reporting for Malaga city