Tourism measure from Seville Municipality: Water supply to be cut for illegal rental homes

The Seville City Council, located in the autonomous region of Spain, will cut off the water supply to apartments that are illegally rented to tourists, following a court decision. Implementing a new plan to deter unwanted visitors due to dissatisfaction with mass tourism, Seville has cut off the water to six illegally rented apartments in the hope of applying this measure to thousands of others. The water will be turned back on once the apartments begin to be used as homes. The municipality has decided to hold the agencies managing these illegal apartments responsible, as many property owners live abroad and are difficult to reach.

'715 APARTMENTS IDENTIFIED THAT DO NOT COMPLY WITH REGULATIONS'

Authorities estimate that there are approximately 5,000 irregular tourist apartments operating without a license or in violation of regulations in the capital of Andalusia. Sources from Seville's urban planning department told the newspaper El Diario, "These properties include those that are registered in the municipal registry but do not comply with the norms, and those that are not registered but are operating in the market. We are comparing the data with rental platforms, and the analysis will determine the tourist stress of each neighborhood."

So far, 715 apartments that do not comply with regulations have been identified in the investigation. There are more than 9,000 tourist apartments in Seville. Seville's conservative mayor, José Luis Sanz, previously stated: “We will act with zero tolerance against tourist apartments operating irregularly. After years of ignoring the issue, we are implementing more controls and stricter sanctions to put an end to illegal tourist apartments in Seville.”