Desposesión de vivienda por turistización?: Revalorización y desplazamientos en el Centro Histórico de Palma (Mallorca)

Abstract

A raíz de la actual crisis urbana desatada tras el estallido de la burbuja inmobiliaria, la población española está sufriendo un acelerado proceso de desposesión de vivienda. Los desahucios de inquilinos y las ejecuciones hipotecarias dibujan un escenario conflictivo, que al mismo tiempo activa nuevas oportunidades de acumulación en el entorno construido. Este artículo plantea una discusión sobre el papel que está jugando la desposesión de vivienda a través de los desahucios en el proceso de revalorización y turistización urbana, partiendo de la hipótesis que su correlación deviene necesaria en el proceso de acumulación por desposesión de vivienda. El trabajo se aterriza en el Centro Histórico de Palma, analizando su proceso de turistización y su geografía de los desahucios y revalorización desde los años de auge inmobiliario hasta la actualidad. Se concluye planteando que la turistización como elemento de creación de expectativas de renta, por tanto, potenciadora de la rent gap y en consecuencia de la revalorización inmobiliaria, representa un factor fundamental en la generación de desplazamientos directos.

Foreclosures and Evictions in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria during the Economic Crisis and Post-Crisis Period in Spain

“…The analysis over time of evictions due to non-payment of rent has fewer benchmark studies, as the urban analyses usually group together the data for multiple years, either focusing on short periods or else contrasting figures from specific years [18,20,25]. While the figures from the National Statistics Institute at national level, as already mentioned, recorded accelerated growth until 2011, followed by a stop-start decline in recent years, the initial growth in the judicial district for Las Palmas de Gran Canaria lasted somewhat longer, until 2012, when the figures stabilize until 2015 before recording growth since then, attaining absolute values even higher than those in the years of the first crisis.…”

“…This approach has meant that several studies have related the geography of evictions to other socio-spatial variables [17], since some social groups were the ones who benefited from flexibilization in the terms and conditions for granting mortgage loans. In the specific case of island geographic contexts with a strong implantation of tourism, as is the case of the Balearic Islands, the touristification of the urban space has been conceived as a specific factor for the dispossession of homes [18].…”

“…Complementary to this, other studies have been carried out based on the disaggregated analysis of judicial records of foreclosures and evictions from specific judicial districts. This is the case of the studies conducted on the judicial districts of Palma in Majorca [18,25], Maó in Menorca [26] and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria [27]. The advantage of such a micro-scale approach is that it makes urban geographical analysis easier, given that the address is provided for each of the properties affected by dispossession or eviction and a larger number of variables can be obtained for analysis.…”

Barcelona, Housing Rent Bubble in a Tourist City. Social Responses and Local Policies

“…The criminalization of tourism is associated with social reactions to overtourism with antitourism [20] that are rooted in the class struggle within the crisis [3]. Tourist housing rental has already been associated with the deterioration of labor conditions [21], decreasing profitability of the hotel industry [22], finance and real estate speculation [23] and to the consequences of neoliberal urban policies [15]. The contribution of this study aims to demonstrate that there are other factors, in addition to tourism, that favor the rising prices of rental housing, explain social movements' reactions and the attempts to apply palliative measures by the local public administration.…”

Evaluation of the Reception Capacity of a Certain Area Regarding Tourist Housing, Addressing Sustainable-Tourism Criteria

“…However, not all tourist increase has been positive in its entirety; there are critical movements of the recent tourist development and growth, which shows that this is a globally shared phenomenon. Some of these negative effects can be seen in issues such as Touristification and gentrification processes in Berlin [8,9], tensions due to socio-spatial transformations and touristification processes in the slums in Rio de Janeiro [10]; social unrest because of housing dispossession and the urban revalorization and touristification processes in Palma de Mallorca historical center [11]; the rising unrest and annoyance regarding the overcrowding and socio-spatial transformations in the center of Amsterdam [12,13]; the emergent mobilization related to the impact of tourism on Paris, especially regarding the proliferation of tourism housing [14]; the so-called Airbnb syndrome in Reykjavik [15]; the riots against cruises because of the increase in cruise passengers [16] and the consultative referendum held in Venice; the protests carried out by Hong Kong citizens against Chinese tourists [17]; and the emergence of people resisting the use of the land and local resources in Goa, India [18].…”