The decision of the private owners of apartments in the south of Gran Canaria to skip the tour operation and do it directly already generates a crater in the TT.OO of about 591 million euros annually, according to official studies managed by the ULPGC. But there are 591 million euros that are taxed in the south of the island given the marking that the AEAT has on this sector. Airbnb and similar rental platforms collaborate with the Treasury, issuing reports on rental contracts. These companies help and act as intermediaries in collecting the 21% tax on income related to short rentals. That is, the Airbnb practice helps the Treasury know what taxes those who use its platform must pay.
The current sectoral regulation contemplates an exceptional situation articulated through the Canary Islands Land Law that allows residential use for situations consolidated before January 1, 2017, although the same regional regulation. There are 591 million euros annually compared to the 9.000 million annually that tourism moves in the south of Gran Canaria. The market is the same, but more horizontal. The municipal authorities want to order but not regulate the market and for the businessmen to be self-managed and for those who cannot operate to go to other destinations to see if they will have public promotion funds there; but that the local population who has invested has the right to receive profits from tourism. That of sending institutional leaders to defend a foreign wholesale business here, nothing at the moment.
The war for control of the crumbs of destiny has caused owners from Las Palmas or other parts of Europe to choose to list their apartment on Airbnb or Booking against official criteria. It is a legal measure where municipal authorities have little room for maneuver because it is private property that has decided to be marketed in a digital format individually and not collectively.
The issue is that the sector's employers demand that the market be ordered and the local authorities respond that the market does not require intervention but rather order. This affects the entire tourism business in the south of Gran Canaria, the economic capital of the island. But the people of Las Palmas who live in the south or rent their business on Airbnb or Booking do not want to know anything about the thesis of the wholesale businessmen.
Last February, the Federation of Hospitality and Tourism Entrepreneurs (FEHT) of Las Palmas warned that the processes of residentialization of tourist properties and the "blow up" of the legal principle of exploitation unit implies "notorious and obvious" risks for economic activity and that any legislative decision by public administrations that "involves damage to the islands' tourism sector through tolerance of residentialization is the worst possible housing policy."
