Spanish News Today Editors Roundup Weekly Bulletin Sept 19
TOP STORIES: "Win free tickets to watch La Manga European Senior Masters Championship" & "Crackdown on illegal holiday lets sweeps Spain"
Without further ado, let’s dive into this week’s round-up.
Budget trains, big numbers
Golf legends head to La Manga
Summer sweep
Spain has kicked off a major crackdown on illegal holiday rentals. The Ministry of Housing has ordered more than 53,800 unregistered or non-compliant flats pulled off Airbnb, Booking.com and other platforms, aiming to get more homes back on the long-term rental market.
Andalucía is the region feeling the biggest squeeze, with nearly 17,000 tourist apartments taken offline; almost a third of the country’s total removals. Seville tops the local list with 2,289 listings vanished, followed by Marbella and Malaga city, where thousands more have disappeared from the holiday scene.
This isn’t just a one-off sweep either. Since the start of the year, Spain has processed more than 336,000 rental applications, and nearly 54,000 were rejected for missing registration codes or not meeting the latest rules.
Thanks to a new digital “one-stop shop” and Europe’s first Single Registry for temporary accommodation, authorities can now spot dodgy listings even when they pop up on multiple sites.
The idea behind this tough stance is to protect neighbourhoods from the downsides of unregulated holiday lets and to encourage landlords to offer homes as "stable, permanent rentals," especially for young families and locals struggling to find somewhere to live.
If you thought the holiday rental market was booming, think again - the tide is turning, and Spain’s hot tourist pads are slowly coming back to the local housing pool. It’s a bold move in the battle for affordable housing, and one that’s shaking up the country’s rental landscape in a big way.
So, if you fancy finding a long-term place to call home, this crackdown might just make that dream a little easier.
Murcia
Meanwhile, Murcia's vineyards are facing some serious pressures of their own. Climate change is hitting the Region's wine industry hard, with rising temperatures and prolonged droughts forcing local growers to completely rethink how they work.
On a brighter note, San Javier is cooking up something pretty exciting. The town is building its first Aeronautical Museum right next to the General Air Force Academy, where Princess Leonor is currently training.
Meanwhile, Lorca is gearing up for its main event, the Feria Grande, running from September 19 to 26. This year's festivities promise something for everyone, from free concerts and the massive Feramur arts and crafts fair to horse-drawn carriage exhibitions and the traditional processions of Nuestra Señora La Real de las Huertas.
See our EVENTS DIARY for more events and activities coming up soon in the Region of Murcia:
Spain
Unfortunately, the news isn't quite so cheerful when it comes to air travel. Ryanair has just delivered another blow to Spain's aviation sector, announcing plans to cut an additional one million seats on Spanish flights next summer.
Alicante
The numbers don’t lie: Alicante is more popular than ever with people from abroad jetting over for a holiday, stopping off on a cruise or taking the plunge and buying a house.
In fact, foreign buyers accounted for a third (33.2%) of property buyers in the province during the second quarter of 2025, a higher proportion than anywhere else in Spain.
Other hotspots for overseas buyers included the Balearic Islands (31.5%), Málaga (27.1%) and Santa Cruz de Tenerife (25.8%).
Last year alone, foreigners snapped up almost 93,000 homes across Spain, about 14.6% of all property sales, with British, German, Moroccan, French and Dutch buyers making up the lion’s share of buyers’ nationalities.
In Alicante the Dutch are currently the most active buyers (19%), ahead of Germans (12%) and Brits (11%), proving that although Brexit severely restricted opportunities to move here, the allure of the Costa Blanca remains potent enough for many UK citizens’ to do whatever it takes to overcome these new obstacles.
And whether Britons are buying property here or just visiting, most of us arrive by plane at Alicante-Elche airport, which continues to set new records for passenger numbers month after month, and year after year.
August 2025 was no exception, with 2,098,522 travellers representing a 6.9% increase on the same month last year.
Of these people, 1.8 million were foreign, led - as ever - by the British contingent, who made up 714,903 of the total, up 7.6% on last year.
Foreign flyers from many other nations were also on the up, principally Germans (up 9% to 113,894), Dutch (up 3% to 113,800), French (up 5% to 108,473) and Belgian (up 4% to 97,816), while the number of Polish passengers soared by 20% to 93,796.
At this rate, Alicante-Elche airport is on track to break another record by exceeding 20 million passengers this year.
As the country’s fifth busiest airport, there is still a long way to go before it overtakes fourth-placed Málaga, which had almost as many passengers in August (18.1 million) as Alicante had in all of 2024 (18.4 million), but the Costa Blanca hub is growing faster than most other airports in Spain.
Plans already underway include a new taxiway and a larger terminal capable of handling 26 million passengers a year
Of course another great way to visit the provincial capital is to pull up in the port on a cruise liner and enjoy a tour of the city or other attractions nearby.
With one record expected to be broken this year, when around 250,000 visitors are expected to arrive by boat, the Port Authority has now predicted that 2026 will be even better, with an estimated 114 cruise ships bringing roughly 300,000 passengers, which could bring in over €70 million.
The growth stems from a collaborative effort to attract more shipping lines by the Port, the City Council, Global Ports Holding, the Costa Blanca Tourism Board, and the Alicante Costa Blanca Tourism and Cruises Association.
This week, they have been showcasing 39 cruise routes and excursions focused on Alicante and other beautiful Costa Blanca towns at the Seatrade Europe trade fair in Hamburg.
Italy’s Costa Cruises and the UK’s Fred Olsen Cruise Lines have scheduled trial home port calls in Alicante next year. If successful, this could encourage passengers to extend stays in the city’s hotels.
Port Authority president Luis Rodríguez said they are investing in infrastructure to consolidate this growth, including new docks at Pier 14 to improve handling of larger vessels.
All these international visitors and residents bring elements of their own cultures from home, particularly their cuisine.
This goes far beyond the simple pleasures of a full-English fry up at a Costa Blanca cafe, and has been incorporated into one of Spain’s most versatile and popular gastronomic innovations: tapas.
Torrevieja is celebrating this happy marriage of foreign and domestic influences with the 9th edition of its popular International Tapas Day on Saturday September 27.
A wide selection of bars and restaurants will be serving up culinary creations at a promotional price of just €3.50 for a tapa and a drink.
Participants can also enter raffles and an Instagram photography contest with fantastic prizes by scanning the QR code at participating establishments and sharing their experience online.
It really is a melting pot of cultural traditions coming together to be shared for each other’s delight.
Andalucía
Andalucía is really charging ahead as Spain’s green energy champion, especially when it comes to solar power. Over the past year, the region installed a whopping 3,607 MW of new renewable capacity, pushing clean energy to nearly 70% of its total electricity output.
With an eye-popping 920 solar projects and 64 wind farms queued up, Andalucía is the place to watch for all things green energy. They’ve poured €3.625 billion into this boom, creating over 10,800 jobs in the process.
Solar power takes the lead here, with 65% of the renewable capacity coming just from photovoltaics (a technology that converts sunlight directly into electricity), adding 1,600 MW in the first half of 2025 alone, making the total solar power over 10,400 MW.
There’s also solar thermal, wind, hydro, and some biomass in the mix, but make no mistake, solar’s the star of the show. Andalucía even produces more solar power than anywhere else in Spain, clocking about 2,300 GWh. Plus, they’re investing in green hydrogen and biogas too, aiming to become the clean energy hub of Southern Europe. Not bad for this sunny corner of the world, right?
From soaking up the sun to soaking in art, Marbella now boasts a truly one-of-a-kind luxury home.
Villa El Martinete in Nueva Andalucía is up for sale - and here’s the kicker: it has the only swimming pool on the planet painted by Pablo Picasso.
The villa was built in the late 1950s by flamenco legend Antonio “El Bailarín” Ruiz Soler, named after one of his famous dances. The Picasso connection started in 1961 when he gifted Antonio a sketch of a dancer and that sketch now decorates the bottom of the pool in custom tiles.
With over 4,000 square metres of space, nine bedrooms, and lavish sea-view gardens, this place screams glamour. The price tag? A cool €30 million, but if that’s too rich, weekly rentals run from €35,000 to €80,000.
The villa still hosts art shows and performances, keeping Antonio’s creative spirit alive. So, if you’re looking for a unique experience, fancy a dip in art history?
And if you think that’s a quirky enough story for one week, how about a Seville bar set ablaze by a mayo-free customer? On Wednesday August 20, a man stormed into Bar Las Postas in Los Palacios y Villafranca demanding mayonnaise for his sandwich. When told no, he left, but no taking no for an answer, he fetched some petrol, and set the bar on fire - yes, really!
Thankfully, police and quick-thinking staff stopped the blaze before things got worse.
The damage was over €20,000, and the man was arrested after suffering burns. But here’s the twist: Hellman’s mayonnaise has stepped in to pay for repairs, promising on social media to “make sure you never run out of mayonnaise for your sandwiches again.”
Bar owner José Antonio Liebre said he was surprised but thankful, and will now be working closely with Hellman’s to keep those sandwiches fully stocked in the future. A messy crisis turned into an unlikely act of kindness - and if in doubt, never underestimate the power of a sandwich condiment!
You may have missed…
- Spain announces historic €13 billion investment in country's airports
AENA, the airport operator under the Ministry of Transport, has announced a massive investment of almost €13 billion between 2027 and 2031 to modernise Spain’s airports and meet expected passenger demand. - Another morning of delays for Andalucía-Madrid high-speed trains
This breakdown, which occurred early in the morning, caused yet another round of setbacks, marking the second day in a row that people on this route have faced disruption. - Earthquake measuring 3.5 hits Northwest Murcia
The National Geographic Institute (ING) recorded an earthquake measuring 3.5 on the Richter scale in the northwest of the Region of Murcia during the early hours of Thursday, September 18. - Alicante Airport adds several new winter flights to the UK, Moldova and Poland
Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport is gearing up for an even busier winter season. Between November and March, travellers will find more flights and a wider range of destinations than last year, keeping the Costa Blanca well connected even outside the summer months. - Murcia among world's top 20 places for digital nomads
Several Spanish cities appear in the top 20, including Murcia, and although none managed to claim the top spot, the report clearly shows that Spain has ideal places for those who work remotely.
And that’s all we’ve got for you this week. See you again next Friday.
Happy weekend 
