The Department of the Urban Model, Urbanism, Housing, Cleaning and Environment imposed a new sanction on January 16, 2025 to Luxury Rental Apartments SL, according to LUZ. The penalized house is located on the second floor in Calle Pintore in the Old Town of Vitoria-Gasteiz. The portal has four homes, one for each floor, and Luxury owns the four. As well as more housing, both in the Old Town and in other neighborhoods.

The department ordered the company to “demolish the building without a license” and “return the house to its original state”, giving it a period of two months to do so. The resolution warns that if the order is not executed, the City Council will impose an economic fine on Luxury and transmit the information to the Public Prosecutor’s Office so that it can analyze whether the company has committed the crime of disobedience.

Luxury had one month to file an administrative appeal against the City Council’s decision, or two months if it was filed in court. The Planning Department has been called by LUZ to receive updated information on the dossier, and the only information obtained is that the dossier is open. That would indicate that Luxury has filed an appeal. Residents of the portal area of Calle Pintor, on the other hand, assure this media that no restoration work has been carried out in the house.

Four files, the second against the same house

Since November 2022, the City Council of Vitoria-Gasteiz has opened cases against Luxury several times, taking into account the latter in at least four cases, all for the same reason: to carry out comprehensive renovation work on the houses without being authorized to do so. Three on Calle Pintores, a fourth on Calle Hedegile, all in the Old Town. His company offers tourist housing.

Even more so. This is the second time that the City Council has opened the file due to the “clandestine” works carried out on the second floor of the portal of Calle Pintor. It opened for the first time in November 2022, as a result of which Luxury was fined by the city council in 2023.

Luxury and Antepara

According to the commercial register, in 2003 the company Grupo Enea Editorial was founded; in 2007 it was renamed Grupo Editorial y Comunicaciones Enea; and finally in 2020 it was renamed Luxury Rental Apartments SL. In 2016, when the councilor of the City Council of Vitoria-Gasteiz joined, Antépara presented a declaration of obligatory assets and declared that it had 100% of the company. When he left the position in 2019, he declared that he had 50% of the company.

In April 2023, Gustavo Antépara, member of the PP of Vitoria-Gasteiz, published the investigative report “Clandestine” works in illegal tourist flats. The report resonated with other media outlets, and the PP sought to discredit and downplay the allegations in two ways: on the one hand, it stated that Antépara only had “certain shares” of Luxury; on the other, it asserted that the PP member had ceased to be the company’s administrator in 2019.

As for the position of administrator, it was then demonstrated that LUZ held this responsibility until July 2022 (not until 2019) and that since at least 2021 it has rented tourist homes without the necessary authorization, that is, that it was the administrator. In July 2022, Pilar Perosanz was appointed as the new administrator, which continues to be so today, according to the Regisro de Comercio. Perosanz is the president of the Arabatur association, which has worked as a lobby to adapt the regulation of tourist housing, and the partner of Antepara. Perosanez also assured LA LUZ in 2023 that Antépara’s only link to Luxury was “a few participations.”

In September 2024, the Vitoria-Gasteiz City Council website renewed the registration of property belonging to municipal representatives. Antepara stated that it owns 50% of Luxury’s shares. The annual economic accounts have been submitted by Luxury to the Commercial Registry for the last time in 2021, although it is mandatory to submit them annually.

Luxury, on the other hand, exploits several houses owned by him as tourist housing, some of them without having the necessary permits.

A significant member of the PP and close to Javier de Andrés

Gustavo Antepara has a long career in the PP. Among other things, he was a councillor between 2016-2019 in the City Council of Vitoria-Gasteiz; in the municipal and provincial elections of 2023 he went on the lists for both the City Council of Vitoria-Gasteiz and the Provincial Council of Álava; after the elections he was appointed advisor to the municipal team of Vitoria-Gasteiz with a gross salary of 3,450 per month; since 2024 he has been a councillor in parliament after replacing Ainhoa Domaica.

On April 21, 2024, elections to the Basque Parliament were held. During the campaign, it was common to see Antepara along with the presidential candidate Javier de Andrés and his team. On the night of the elections, De Andrés made an assessment of the results in front of the media. In television images Antepara appeared next to him in the background, between Carlos Iturgaizen and Ainhoa Domaica, then spokesman of the City Council of Vitoria-Gasteiz. A year later, in April 2025, President Imanol Pradales held a round of meetings with party leaders, including De Andrés. He arrived at the meeting place accompanied by Gustavo Antepara.