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SCHOOLS

Madrid to keep schools open to pupils during holidays

Madrid's regional president has announced that schools in Spain's capital will be open during holiday periods such as Easter and Christmas so that pupils can take part in learning and extracurricular activities while their parents work.

Published: 7 March 2023 10:56 CET
MADRID-SCHOOLS-OPEN-HOLIDAYS
Pictured: Children at school (Photo by DESIREE MARTIN / AFP)

From January 2024, schools in the Madrid Community will be open during non-school days for children aged 3 to 6 in early childhood education (Educación Infantil) and those aged 6 to 12 in Primary Education (Primaria).

“The regional government is going to do right by families and help them face day-to-day challenges and ongoing childcare issues,” Madrid’s Regional President Isabel Díaz Ayuso said on Monday as she made the announcement.

The aim is to support students with their studies as well as offer language learning, sports and arts and crafts activities during the holidays.

The average school year in Spain is made up of 175 days of class, whereas in other European countries such as Italy and Denmark it’s around 200 days a year. During the summer, most Spanish schools are closed for two and a half months. 

READ ALSO: What childcare options are available over the summer in Spain?

This is one of the reasons behind Spain’s problem of conciliación familiar, the difficult work-family balance that parents face as they can’t afford that much time off work to take care of their kids.

In order for the measure to be approved, the Ministry of Education must sign an agreement with the different Madrid municipal councils and owners of each education centre.

In addition to this, Ayuso said that her government is going to financially help all those families who are facing challenges so that their children can access extracurricular activities.  

READ ALSO: Spanish cities among least expensive in Europe for international schools

“No student is going to stop visiting museums, going to the theatre, taking part in excursions or learning an instrument due to a lack of financial resources,” she explained.

According to the regional government’s calculations, €12 million will be allocated for both measures and 200,000 families stand to benefit.  

The divisive leader also announced plans to decrease the number of students in each classroom to improve the teacher-to-student ratio.  

The same ratios that were in the second year of early childhood education (ages 3-6) will be extended to secondary education (ESO level ages 12-16) so that the number of students per class will go from 30 down to 25.  

Last September, the regional government already reduced the numbers in primary education from 25 to 20 students per class.

“To start this course, the number of teaching staff was increased by 219 and an investment in the educational infrastructure of more than €1.3 million was made with the aim of adapting the spaces. For 2023/24, it is expected that we will recruit around 650 new teachers,” Ayuso stated.

Investment in education is reportedly a priority for Ayuso and her government, which this year will spend €130 million to build four new institutes, a school and five nursery schools. The expansion of another 23 centres distributed across 19 municipalities will also be carried out.

“These are actions that aim to respond to the needs of schooling in public schools in our region and will mean the creation of about 12,000 new school positions,” a regional government spokesperson said.   

READ ALSO: Almost half of Spanish families pay for private classes for their children

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MADRID

Madrid to suspend holiday-let licences as rent prices spiral

Madrid City Hall has announced it will temporarily suspend the granting of new licences for so-called tourist apartments in a bid to rein in a ballooning industry that's impacting prices and stock of long-term rents in Spain's capital.

Published: 29 April 2024 13:14 CEST
Madrid to suspend holiday-let licences as rent prices spiral

Madrid authorities also announced they will not authorise the transformation of commercial properties into tourist accommodation in the centre of the city and will increase the fines for tourist properties that do not comply with regulations.

Madrid, like many other cities in Spain, has been suffering from a rise in illegal tourist accommodation with thousands swiftly popping up across the capital.

One of the main obstacles for regulators is how difficult it is to find out exactly how many there are. Madrid authorities have counted 14,699 tourist establishments in the city, 92 percent of which are for tourist accommodation. But, only 941 of these have a municipal licence, meaning the rest are illegal.

READ ALSO: Why Madrid is struggling with its explosion of illegal holiday lets

According to the Inside Airbnb platform though, there are 25,543 tourist apartments listed in the city.

In order to combat the issue,  Madrid City Hall will increase the amount of fines for owning and running one of these illegal holiday lets.

They will set the first penalty at €30,000, the second at €60,000 and the third level at €100,000. Those committing serious infringements or who keep renting out their flats without licences, even after warnings, may have to pay up to €190,000.

Current fines are only €1,000 for the first infringement. If they still don’t comply, a second fine of €2,000 is issued, and if the situation persists, a third penalty of €3,000 will be given.

The number of inspectors to check on tourist rentals will also be increased by 15 percent, up to 75.

In order to help holidaymakers know whether or not an apartment they’re interested in is legal or not, the city will also publish a list of flats with licences and their location on an official website.

“People who want to stay will know if they are in a legal or illegal accommodation and the consequences that may arise because of this” explained Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida.

In early 2019, former mayor Manuela Carmena approved a special Accommodation Plan to regulate tourist accommodation in the city. The new rule established among other requirements that tourist apartments should have an independent entrance from the rest of the neighbours.

According to her calculations, this would affect 95 percent of holiday lets in the city, essentially rendering them illegal. The rule was appealed by the sector, but the courts ended up agreeing with the City Council in 2021.

These rules were found to be insufficient as many holiday lets have continued to operate in the capital without a licence, and in late 2023 Martínez-Almeida promised to create new ones. 

Initial approval of the new plan is scheduled for September 2024 and final approval is expected to be in the first half of 2025. 

READ ALSO: Who really owns all the Airbnb-style lets in Spain?

The problem is not only the number of tourist rentals, but the issues they cause for residents. The Inspection and Disciplinary Service received 51 percent more complaints in 2023 than in 2022 that involved homes and apartments for tourist use: 686 compared to 454. 82 percent of which came from citizens.  

Of the total inspections carried out (4,093), it was verified that 478 homes were dedicated to tourist use and 243 were for residential use.

Not everyone is in agreement with the new plan. The Regional Federation of Neighbours of Madrid (FRAMV) believes Almeida’s plan is not enough and that the regulations should apply to the entire municipality not just the central areas.  

The spokesperson for Más Madrid in the City Council, Rita Maestre, has also spoken out against the plan. Maestre believes that the vast majority of tourist apartments already operate freely without a licence, and that the new legislation will do little to change that.

For Exceltur, Spain’s main tourism and hotelier association, there is not enough inspection capacity anywhere in Spain to be able to control that legislation is complied with.

Spain’s Housing Minister Isabel Rodríguez recently called on the 17 regional governments to implement restrictions on short-term holiday lets in areas where rents for locals have spiked, as the national government continues to look for ways to address the country’s housing crisis.

“Wherever there is a greater concentration of apartments for tourists, there is also pressure in the property market ,” Rodríguez said.

Even Madrid’s populist regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso, whose policies are usually in favour of “freedom” and liberalisation, has said that they “are studying how to regulate holiday accommodation so that higher prices do not expel neighbours”.

Average monthly rent prices in Madrid currently stand at €20.7 per square metre, after registering an increase of 18.2 percent over the last twelve months and 4.8 percent in a quarter-on-quarter rate.

“Vacation rentals are having an impact on the market, especially in the historic centres of cities,” Madrid’s general director of Housing and Rehabilitation of the Community María José Piccio-Marchetti Prado, told Business Insider Spain.

“In Madrid you see it around Puerta del Sol, Plaza Mayor… where there are many tourist homes”.

READ ALSO: Which cities in Spain have new restrictions on tourist rentals?

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