For a long time, the central area of Madrid has monopolized the spotlight of the phenomenon of tourist apartments, overshadowing the advance of this sector in areas of the city where housing is strictly a basic necessity, as is the case of Vallecas.
A fact on the InsideAirbnb analysis website is surprising: the second neighborhood outside the M-30 with the most tourist accommodation is San Diego, in Vallecas, which is the third poorest in the entire city.
To put this issue on the table, the PSOE will take a question this Wednesday to the monthly plenary session of the Puente de Vallecas district board so that the presiding councilor, Ángel Niño (PP), assesses the proliferation of these apartments and the repercussions for the Vallecanos. .
Vallecas is beginning to fear that a phenomenon similar to that of the central districts will occur: rent increases, closure of local businesses and displacement of longtime residents.
Socialist spokesperson Jediael Álvarez says that until now this matter had not been discussed in the district's municipal board, but he says that recent field work has opened their eyes about the implementation of these accommodations: “Neighbors have identified entire blocks of homes that have been purchased with funds to dedicate them to tourist accommodation and this is worrying,” says Álvarez.
“In the neighborhood you can find advertisements offering to buy apartments for cash.”
Before the pandemic, the presence of tourist apartments was anecdotal, but since then it has become common to see tourists walking around with their wheeled suitcases, according to the president of the Puente de Vallecas-San Diego neighborhood association, Jorge Nacarino.
He says that it is a new presence because only a couple of hotels operate in the entire district and one of them is aimed at Mercamadrid businessmen.
“We have begun to receive complaints about the noise generated by these tourists and the increase in rents caused by these accommodations,” says Nacarino.
“This is an oil spill that has surpassed the center and has reached us because we have a good Metro connection.”
Throughout Madrid, 25,543 tourist accommodations are offered, of which 19,373 are located within the central almond, according to InsideAirbnb.
What the data from that website shows is that proximity to that inner ring is key: the neighborhoods that border the M-30 on the outside have the highest concentrations of tourist apartments outside the central almond.
Airbnb contains 258 listings in the Vallecano neighborhood of San Diego, only surpassed by Puerta del Ángel, with 360 (in the Madrid Río area).
At number three appears Ventas, with 234, at number four Pueblo Nuevo, with 217, and at number five, another Vallecano neighborhood, Numancia, with 203.
The transformation of this outer ring is also observed in housing prices: the new “Chinatown” of Madrid, Almendrales, is the neighborhood of the capital where second-hand housing became most expensive in 2023, according to the Fotocasa portal: a dizzying 34.5%.
Almendrales is also located next to the M-30, in this case in the Usera district.
More information
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Investors looking to put these apartments for long-term or tourist rental find more profitability than in the central area, says the San Diego neighborhood president.
“Here they pay 180,000 euros for an apartment that in a central location could cost 400,000.”
The socialist spokesperson in Puente de Vallecas believes that this interest of real estate investors in the area is the real reason for the plan to move Rayo Vallecano, an idea that the club's largest shareholder, Raúl Martín Presa, justifies because the stadium has become obsolete .
“We have noticed how tourist accommodation abounds around the stadium,” observes Álvarez.
“They are placing the Monopoly tiles while prices are low.
It seems like a strategy to sink Vallecas.”
Write to the author at
fpeinado@elpais.es
or
fernandopeinado@protonmail.com
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