This popular party island is experiencing an increase in car dwellers: here’s an explanation | Business

“I miss the basic things that make life comfortable, like being able to stand up in my own house, cook properly, or even open a drawer and pull out a sock,” he says.

“These are the things you miss when you live in a car.”

César’s Kia has been his home for the past three years. He works as a chef, but rents on the Spanish island of Ibiza have gone up so he can’t afford to live in an apartment.

“Housing is very expensive in Ibiza, and it’s getting more expensive,” he says. “And the rent does not match what you earn at all. So this kind of life is an alternative. It’s not so convenient, but it allows me to continue living on the island.”

Ibiza is one of the four main Mediterranean islands that make up Spain’s Balearic Islands. The other islands are Mallorca, Menorca and Formentera.

Many local professionals in Ibiza live in similar precarious conditions due to high rents. Last year, the IGC, the body representing the Civil Guard police, said “three or four” of its officers were living in vehicles on the island.

Other local residents live in tents or extremely basic communal facilities, writes the BBC.

Daniel Granda, representative of Sindicato de Inquilinas de Ibiza y Formentera, an organization that represents local tenants, says that such situations are becoming commonplace.

“A lot of people end up in pretty poor conditions, and we’re starting to see slums all over the island,” he says. “Unable to find housing where we can live normally, those of us who live on the island feel that we are being pushed out.”

AFP/„Scanpix“ nuotr./Similar

High interest rates and the recent cost-of-living crisis have deterred many Spaniards from buying property, leading to an increase in demand for rental housing, which has pushed up rental prices. In the past year alone, rents have increased by an average of 18 percent in the Balearic Islands, and by an average of 12 percent across the country.

However, Ibiza’s status as a tourist center in a relatively small area has exacerbated this phenomenon on the island, causing rental prices to increase much faster, in some cases up to 40 or 50 percent. in the past year alone.

Isabel María Perez, who has been looking for affordable housing on the island, says a single room costs between 700 and 1,000 euros a month, while a modest apartment can cost around 1,500 euros.

Isabel, who works as a cashier at a shopping center, and her partner, who works at a five-star hotel, had to move out of their rented flat when it was sold. Since then, they have been living with Isabella’s mother-in-law. Originally from central Spain, Isabel says she and her family are now considering returning to the continent simply because of the housing situation.

“The problem in other parts of Spain is that there is not much work,” she says. “There’s all the work you want here, but no place to live.”

Unemployment in Ibiza Town, the island’s capital, is just 5 percent, compared to 8 percent. in Madrid or 19 percent. Seville, the capital of the Andalusia region.

123RF.com photo/Associative photo: unemployment

Just 160 thousand almost four million tourists visited the populous Ibiza last year – this is a new record, and 84 percent its economic activities, according to local authorities, are related to tourism. While hotels, restaurants and clubs provide many jobs, much of the accommodation is only offered at short-term tourist prices, forcing local workers out of the market.

The conservative regional government of the Balearic Islands, which came to power last year, decided not to implement a housing law approved by the Spanish government in Madrid, which aims to limit rent prices in regions of the country where they have risen sharply.

The local authorities attribute the housing problem mainly to residential owners in Ibiza’s residential areas flouting the law and offering their properties for short-term rentals, even though local laws stipulate that they must be rented for a minimum period of six months. The local authorities claim that from 2019 allocated about 4 million EUR fines related to illegal activities in the tourism sector.

“The problem is that renting for a few days or weeks makes a lot more money than renting according to the law,” says Juan Miguel Costa, head of Ibiza’s tourism department.

He says that regional and municipal authorities must work together “to prevent the impunity that makes it very easy to offer an apartment illegally [turizmui] residential property or offer the property as a holiday home without a holiday licence’.

JMCosta also explains that the increase in rental prices is due to the fact that many housing units remain unused throughout the year, as owners fear possible squatting (when illegally occupying abandoned or temporarily uninhabited foreign housing. – aut.), which further reduces the housing supply in the area employees.

Ironically, Ibiza’s housing crisis now threatens to damage the very tourism industry that is so widely blamed for rising rents.

“Everyone here keeps saying the same thing: someone has to step back because the prices keep going up,” says George McBlain, director of operations at O ​​Beach, a disco and restaurant that employs workers from the island, mainland Spain and overseas.

“Sure, wages are going up a bit, but not enough,” he adds. “I have friends here whose rents have doubled in a year. If this continues, you will see workers coming to the island looking elsewhere, which is already happening.”