El Puerto equates tourist apartments to housing in the historic center

The Plenary Session of the City Council of El Puerto de Santa María approved on July 3, 2026, a clarifying instruction that equates tourist apartments to residential housing for density purposes in the historic center. The agreement, adopted in Section C of Item Four of the Agenda of the ordinary session, was made public via an announcement in the Official Gazette of the Province of Cádiz on September 10, 2026.

The instruction regulates the conditions of compatibility and density for the use of tourist apartments in accordance with the Urban Planning Regulations and Ordinances of the Special Plan for the Protection and Interior Reform of the Historic Complex and Surroundings (PEPRICHyE), a key instrument for the tourism sector and for residential pressure in the city center.

Strict Application of the PEPRICHyE

The instruction entails the strict and literal application of what is determined in art. 3.1.1 section 5.e of the NNyOO of the PEPRICHyE, which equates the tourist apartment to residential housing for density purposes. This criterion applies to ordinary plots within the scope of the Special Plan included in the ordinance zones:

• Barrio Bajo Residential (BB)
• Barrio Alto Residential (BA)
• Maintenance Ordinance Residential (OM)

Plots to which the protected housing link is applicable are excluded from this equation.

Rules for Specific Revitalization Actions

In plots included in Specific Revitalization Actions (AER), priority must be given to the determinations of the specific Sheet of the area, pursuant to article 2.1.5, sections 3 and 4, which grant said singularized planning a prevailing character over general regulations. When the AER Sheet expressly and conclusively sets the residential buildability and the maximum number of dwellings, the urban residential density shall be understood as satisfied and closed by said Sheet.

In these cases, specific rules are established:

• Residential buildability intended for protected housing is excluded in all cases from the implementation of tourist apartments.
• Implementation on unused or functionally replaced residential buildability is subject to the density ratio 1 tourist apartment = 1 dwelling, as residential buildability is consumed.
• The application of art. 3.1.1.5.e is not applicable when the use is implemented exclusively on tertiary buildability, whether in plots with ST-CO and/or ST-H classification, or on the mandatory minimum tertiary buildability imposed by the AER Sheet.

The consideration of tertiary buildability as a valid support does not imply assigning it a specific destination, but only recognizing the compatibility of said use within the set of tertiary uses admitted by the PEPRICHyE.

Appeals and Validity

The following appeals may be filed against the approving agreement:

• Reconsideration (Reposición), optional, before the same body, within one month of its notification.
• Contentious-administrative, within two months, before the Contentious-Administrative Court of Cádiz.

The instruction, signed by Mayor Germán Beardo Caro, provides legal certainty for the implementation of tourist apartments in the historic center, a sector in full expansion. With this regulation, the City Council organizes the compatibility between tourist activity and residential density, in a balance that will condition the future of the old town and its residential pressure.

Source: Official Gazette of the Province of Cádiz, no. 175, September 10, 2026, Local Administration section (official reference: No. 281.917).