262
submitted 7 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

César Nebrera pours out a cup of coffee he has brewed on a stove in the boot of his car. The old green Kia saloon sits in the shade of a carob tree just off the main road near Ibiza Town.

"I miss the basic things that make life comfortable, like being able to stand up in your own home, being able to cook properly, or even open a drawer and pull out some socks," he says.

"Those are the kinds of things that you miss out on when you live in a car."

César's Kia has been his home for the past three years. He works as a chef, but with rental costs on the Spanish island of Ibiza having spiralled, he cannot afford to live in a flat.

"In Ibiza, accommodation is very expensive, and it's getting more and more expensive," he says. "And the cost of renting is completely out of kilter with what you earn. So living like this is an alternative. It's less comfortable, but it allows me to keep living on the island."

Ibiza is one of the four main Mediterranean islands that make up Spain's Balearic Islands. The others are Majorca, Menorca, and Formentera.

Many local professionals in Ibiza are living in similarly precarious conditions because of high rental costs. Last year, the IGC, a representative body of the civil guard police force, said that "three or four" of its officers were living in vehicles on the island.

Other locals have resorted to living in tents, or in extremely basic shared accommodation.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz 73 points 7 months ago

I'll repeat it forever, but minimum wage should be a liveable wage. It should be attached to some median cost of living for the area where the workers work.

[-] hanekam@lemmy.world 32 points 7 months ago

The problem here is that you're competing with tourists sleeping four to a room and you just can't outbid them for apartments, even with high wages. The solution here is to set aside properties for resident locals so that they aren't forced to.

[-] jpreston2005@lemmy.world 19 points 7 months ago

The conservative regional government of the Balearic Islands, which came into power last year, has chosen not to implement a housing law approved by the Spanish government in Madrid which seeks to cap rentals in areas of the country where they have soared.

Conservative regional government is just, choosing not to do anything, despite a law passed that would explicitly help this situation.

Instead, the local authorities mainly attribute the housing problem to homeowners in residential areas of Ibiza who are flouting the law by offering their properties for short-term rental, when local laws state they must rent for at least six months at a time.

So the local government has resorted to fining the people that don't bribe them.

It's a great system

[-] hanekam@lemmy.world 5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I think going after short-term rentals is exactly what they should be doing. If they take bribes not to then that's a huge problem though.

[-] wintermute_oregon@lemm.ee -3 points 7 months ago

Here is my issue with short term rentals. In theory they are needed and a good part of the economy. In practice, they are people who are jacking up the housing market and need to go away. They are a business and should be treated as such. I move often and short term rentals have been great till I can get established. That said I stayed at hotel designer for that purpose. I’m not opposed to some sfh being used for that purpose but we have way too many.

[-] hanekam@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago

You're right. The problem is not so much the concept as what happens when residential property can be turned into Hotels by installing an app.

[-] wintermute_oregon@lemm.ee -3 points 7 months ago

Exactly. I don’t mind a few unique properties as rentals. There are some really unique properties I’d love to stay in that otherwise I wouldn’t. But otherwise they are taking sfh from buyers or renters. That I’m not cool with. We need some for people who are moving. I’m fine with that.

I’m fine with vacation homes outside of metro areas. I’m fine with someone renting a room.

It’s the people who are turning it into a business I’m not fine with.

[-] RidcullyTheBrown@lemmy.world 22 points 7 months ago

This is well beyond what minimum wage is about. The authorities should heavily regulate tourism there and make sure it’s not damaging the local communities. This is not only within their power, it is also the very reason they exist

[-] venusaur@lemmy.world 12 points 7 months ago

They need to regulate Airbnb and other rental companies turning housing into hotels.

[-] RidcullyTheBrown@lemmy.world 8 points 7 months ago

I really don’t understand how we got in this situation. Almost everywhere in the world, tourism used to be heavily regulated. The number of hotels beds, hotel locations, the seats in restaurants, everything monitored restricted and taxed. And then in the space of 10 years, here we are…

[-] venusaur@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago

Businesses are too fast for policy to keep up. Loopholes and gray area.

[-] maynarkh@feddit.nl 3 points 7 months ago

Silicon Valley companies realized that laws are optional.

[-] wintermute_oregon@lemm.ee -2 points 7 months ago

All the vacation rentals need to have been restrictions.

I will say in some parts of the country, you can see them starting to fail. Orlando there are tons of previous air bnb on the market.

You can get a fully furnished McMansion for 500k

[-] venusaur@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago
[-] wintermute_oregon@lemm.ee -4 points 7 months ago

That I don’t know. Go look at realtor or Redfin for Orlando by Disneyland and you can see what I’m talking about. You’ll know it was an air bnb because it’s fully furnished or they’ll say turn key.

this post was submitted on 07 Apr 2024
262 points (97.1% liked)

World News

39034 readers
1205 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS