Laurence Dollimore
A ‘DISRUPTIVE’ developer has received backlash online over its plans to build tiny living capsule homes in Malaga.
Superlativo 8 is hoping to open its ‘hostel’ in June next year in Huelin, an up-and-coming area of the Costa del Sol city.
The hostel will be made up of a shared kitchen and community area and small living capsules consisting of just a bed to sleep in.
In documentation to lure in investors, Superlativo 8 makes it clear that the capsules can be rented out to long term tenants – despite the fact that Andalucian law prohibits hostels being used as housing.
In adverts seen on Instagram, investors are told they can buy ‘a pack of two individual bedroom capsules’ for €48,000.
The firm promises returns of between 19.7% and 31.1% in just one year – much higher than the typical rental or an Airbnb-style flat.
A 40-page dossier prepared by the investors, seen by El Pais, reads: “Due to the excessive housing demand, [this project] allows empty units to be filled in lower seasons, in a coliving mode.”
A Superlativo 8 spokesperson told the same newspaper that it is not breaking any laws because ‘co-living is not expressly regulated in Andalucia and, therefore, the freedom of agreements of the Civil Code governs.’
However a spokesperson for the Andalucian Ministry of Tourism insisted regional legislation prohibits such establishments from being used as living spaces, adding: “In Andalucia, a hostel cannot. It would have to change its official use.”
The capsules have sparked fury online, with residents seeing them as yet another sign of the property market’s decline in terms of accessibility.
One local wrote on X: “I can’t believe it. The very idea is an attack on the minimum respect for human dignity.”
Another said: “I hope this is fake because this is now intolerable.”
One said: “It’s sad and the neighbourhoods of Malaga are abandoned, only investors and apartment towers, the people are increasingly realising what the current Malaga is, sad.”
Others questioned the legality of the offer, with one writing: “How on earth can they offer and sell these? I thought a dwelling (a place to live) in the municipality of Malaga must have a surface area equal to or greater than 30.50 m²?”
