Owner of a property in Ibiza: “I have a legal tourist licence and I can’t rent out the house”

“I have a house with a tourist licence granted, but I can’t rent it out, I can’t market it. It’s desperate”, says Javi Sempere, the owner of a tourist rental property in Sant Antoni affected by the single register for short-term rentals.

The property has had a tourist licence from the Consell de Ibiza since 2017 and, until last year, it could be advertised without any problems. However, at the start of last season, Airbnb deactivated his listing because it did not have the single registration number. “I had the whole season booked and they cancelled all my reservations because they removed my listing”, he criticises.

The owner tried to process the new registration through an agency in Ibiza, to which he paid “just over a thousand euros”, but the procedure ended up blocked. He explains that he received several requests from the Property Registry which, he argues, did not correspond to the reality of the house: “They told me I needed authorisation from the community of owners of the building where my house was located”. However, Sempere explains that it is a detached building in the countryside, with no community of owners and no immediate neighbours: “Say that to me about my flat in Madrid and I’d say fine, but it has nothing to do with Ibiza”, he says.

He also says that, initially, while the procedure was progressing, he received a provisional number, but he was later told that the application had been rejected.

Sempere says the Consell has told him that the property is legal and that he can rent it out with the island tourist licence. The problem is that, without the single register, he cannot advertise it on tourist platforms: “What am I supposed to do? Stand in the middle of the countryside with a sign and see if someone passes by and rents it?” he asks.

Two seasons lost

He explains that the blockage caused him to lose last season and he fears the same will happen this year: “I lost last summer and I can see I’m going to lose this one too”, he laments. By this time of year, he would already have a large part of his bookings confirmed: “At Easter I had the house practically full, and I’ve already lost that. Now I can’t promote the house, I can’t rent it out”.

Sempere switched to tourist rentals after a bad experience with a long-term tenancy. According to his account, a tenant stayed in the property for four and a half years without paying rent, electricity or water, and he had to face three eviction proceedings. “After what has happened to me, until the laws change, I will never in my life rent out a house in the traditional way again”, he says. He chose tourist rentals because they allowed him to charge in advance and gave him greater security.