The Reside plan to regulate tourist apartments and protect residential use in Madrid is making further progress toward its final approval. An extraordinary Urban Planning Commission approved the plan last Wednesday, taking into account several requests submitted during the public information phase. The most important change expands the restrictions on residential buildings outside the city center: in these buildings, vacation rentals will only be permitted in basements, ground floors, and first floors with independent access.
The goal is to separate residential use from tertiary use, because “the problem arises when neighbors and tourists live in the same building,” explained Borja Carabante, the Delegate for Urban Planning. Until now, the original plan allowed for the distribution of tourist apartments (VUT) in areas outside the so-called historic center (APE 00.01), which encompasses a larger part of the central area and offers independent access to the property. The modification stipulates that these may only be implemented in the aforementioned residential areas. The requirement that STVs in the city center be located exclusively in complete buildings remains in place.
The commission’s meeting on Wednesday lasted just two minutes and gave the green light to the government’s Urban Planning Department’s proposal to provisionally approve the concerns raised during the public information process regarding amending the 1997 General Urban Planning Plan to “protect and improve residential use.” The Socialist Group of the city council and Más Madrid voted against, while the People’s Party pushed ahead with the plan with its absolute majority. Vox, on the other hand, reserved the decision for the extraordinary plenary session that will definitively approve the plan, scheduled for Wednesday, May 21. Antonio Giraldo, the PSOE’s head of urban planning, called the plan “stillborn,” arguing that the problem lies not in the regulations but in its illegality.
The Reside plan divides Madrid into two camps when it comes to regulating this type of housing. On the one hand, the districts of Centro, Chamberí, Salamanca, Retiro, as well as parts of Arganzuela, Moncloa, and Chamartín, which are part of the APE 00.01 and designated by the Consistory as the “historic center,” are affected. On the other hand, there are the districts beyond the M-30 and some areas within the ring road, such as Legazpi and Atocha (Arganzuela), large parts of Chamartín and Moncloa-Aravaca, as well as the Estrella and Adelfas neighborhoods in Retiro. In the APE 00.01, scattered vacation apartments in residential buildings are not permitted, even if they are on the ground floor, nor is the conversion of commercial premises into STVs.
Residents of districts that do not fall under the strictest restrictions of the Reside Plan are calling for the regulation to be extended to the entire city. This was also demanded by opposition groups and even by the Tetuán plenary, where the PP spokesperson in the district promised to work to ensure this requirement was included in the Reside plan. Even the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, signaled that he would not rule out extending the ordinance to other urban areas where negative impacts had been identified. Ultimately, however, the city government did not respond to calls for a uniform law for all of Madrid. The Social Democrats criticize that the new proposal will not bring about any “significant change” in practice and that it “does not meet the majority’s desire to apply uniform regulations throughout the city.”
In fact, 62 concerns were raised during the public information phase, many of which called for a uniform scope. The city council acknowledged in its responses that the number of tourist accommodations on the outskirts of the city has increased. However, he points to the process of decentralizing tourism he is pursuing in order to “more evenly distribute the use of accommodations throughout the city,” which must be accompanied by “protective measures for local residents.”
Protection and Restoration of Residential Use
The Reside Plan aims not only to regulate tourist housing construction in the city, but also to protect and restore residential use, particularly in the historic center, where there is greater saturation and pressure due to the increase in tourist accommodations. Another objective is to protect commerce both in the center and in the outskirts. The ordinance provides various measures to address all of these concerns. In the historic center, vacant residential buildings may be renovated and leased for a maximum of 15 years.
These apartments are offered as tourist apartments. After this period, the buildings must be permanently used as residential properties. These apartments must not be located on commercial streets and must be protected (worthy of historic preservation). The Consistory sees this as an opportunity to increase the supply of housing through disused buildings.
To restore residential use in the city center, the plan provides urban planning instruments to facilitate the conversion of buildings. Developers will receive incentives to convert office buildings into residential properties, such as increasing the buildability to make the conversion profitable. Another measure is to facilitate the conversion of disused and listed buildings into residential properties that can be used for affordable or community housing. It is estimated that there are around 215 properties of this type in the city center, including monasteries, schools, and sports centers, which no longer have sufficient demand in their surroundings. It also stipulates that maximum annual rents may not exceed 30% of the average family income in the neighborhood in which the building is located. However, in some areas of APE 00.01, such as Almagro, Ibiza, Jerónimos, and Recoletos, rents will remain high due to the high incomes of their residents.
Maintaining Business Activity
Another key aspect of the Reside Plan is the protection of commerce, both in the historic center and in the periphery. To this end, APE 00.01 prohibits the conversion of commercial premises into tourist apartments. However, conversion into apartments is permitted as long as the premises are not located in commercial centers. In this context, a further amendment was introduced allowing the establishment of STVs in non-residential buildings in the historic center. The proposed text states that these may be built on the top floors, while they are prohibited on the ground floor and in basements to protect the commercial base. If the tertiary building (offices) is located on use levels A and B, which represent the most residential areas within APE 00.01, such as Lavapiés, Malasaña, or Chueca streets, tourist apartments can be built there. The document states that “the prohibition on the tertiary use of apartments on the ground floor and below ground floor may be excessive, given the scarcity of commercial space.”
Outside APE 00.01, the conversion of commercial spaces into tourist apartments is not permitted unless the streets in question are designated as tertiary in the general urban plan. These include, for example, Marcelo Usera, Bravo Murillo, or General Ricardos streets; Avenida Entrevías from its beginnings to the M-40; Calle López de Hoyos, Cartagena and Alcalá; or Paseo de Extremadura from Alfonso Cea to the Segovia Bridge.
As part of the revision of the Reside Plan, the definition of an exclusive building and the conditions of use for tourist apartments were also clarified. It is clarified that these can be implemented in any of the blocks that are part of a group of buildings, “as long as they have independent access and are functionally autonomous.” In other words, if there are multiple blocks in a building, the use of an exclusive building can only be realized in one of these blocks that meets the specified conditions.
Following this penultimate step in the drafting process, the Reside Plan will be voted on and debated in an extraordinary plenary session at the Palacio de Cibeles on May 21. According to the Consistory’s schedule, the new plan is expected to enter into force in August 2025, after receiving approval from the Community of Madrid.
