Six municipalities of the Islands have requested to be a tension zone
The Balearic government will reject the request from six municipalities to limit rents, arguing that the measure "would not improve the situation," despite pressure from local councils and the opposition.
PalmAt least six municipalities in the Balearic Islands – Maó, Ciutadella, Esporles, Santa Maria, Pollença, and Algaida – have asked the regional government to apply the national regulations that allow them to be declared a "stressed area" and automatically limit rental prices when contracts are renewed. The regional government confirmed to ARABalears that "these requests will be resolved shortly, and in principle, all will be denied." "We believe that doing so would not improve their situation," explained the Director General of Housing, José Francisco Reynés. "All levels of government must do everything within their power to improve the lives of citizens, and we will, but there is no guarantee that limiting prices will be beneficial," reiterated the top housing official in the regional government. The PSIB even brought to the Balearic Parliament the possibility that municipalities could request this designation directly from the central government if they could demonstrate that they met the emergency conditions required by law, but the conservative majority of the PP and Vox voted against the proposal. Therefore, only the central government can authorize the measure right now. According to the director general, once the declaration of a "stressed zone" was applied, "in Barcelona, there are 444 people applying for an apartment within the first 10 days of it becoming available on the rental market." "In the Balearic Islands, we have an average of 129 people, which shows that the figures support our opinion and do not recommend opting for this approach at the moment," he explained to ARABalears. The municipalities declared "stressed zones" are mainly located in Catalonia, the Basque Country, and Navarre. There is only one exception: autonomous communities governed by the People's Party (PP). This is the case in A Coruña, where its mayor, Inés Rey, asked for "institutional loyalty" from the Xunta (Galician regional government) when implementing the measures, since despite giving it the green light, the local government had expressed its reservations.
