Short-term rentals Spain

Málaga has taken a major step to balance its booming tourism sector with the local housing market. The city council has confirmed that it will suspend new licences for tourist accommodation for the next three years, following a promise made by Mayor Francisco de la Torre.

Discover the key differences between tourist rentals and seasonal lets in Spain, from legal requirements and contract lengths to taxation and tenant rights. Whether you're a property owner or tenant, understanding these distinctions is essential for making informed decisions in the Spanish rental market.

Last 3rd of April 2025, Spain’s Horizontal Property Act was amended. This is the law that rules on community of owners in Spain.

The President of the Andalusian Regional Government, Juanma Moreno, has announced the creation of the "Titan Group," a unit within the national police dedicated to monitoring and inspecting illegal tourist accommodation.

Rural houses already registered on regional tourism registries are exempt from the new Single Register of Short-Term Rentals starting 1 July. This was confirmed by the Spanish Rural Tourism Association (Asetur) after meetings with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda.

Spain has introduced a new short-term rental registry to regulate tourist accommodations. Property owners must now register rentals with regional authorities, ensuring compliance with safety and zoning rules. The move aims to improve oversight, combat illegal listings, and protect long-term housing availability for residents.

As summer approaches, it's time to book holiday accommodation if you haven't already.

The Balearic Islands Government plans to approve the decree on tourism control measures at the Governing Council on 11 April, aiming for it to take effect before the summer. The proposed measures include a ban on new tourist rental properties in multi-family buildings, higher fines and increased collaboration between local councils and the police to tackle illegal holiday rentals. However, the decree will not include the initially proposed increase in the Sustainable Tourism Tax (ITS).

The number of tourist accommodation places (VUT) in ten Spanish cities now exceeds the total hotel capacity, with Málaga, Valencia and Alicante standing out, according to a report by Exceltur on the 25 cities with the highest number of tourist accommodation places in 2024.

The government aims to amend Article 3 of the Urban Leasing Law (LAU) concerning seasonal rentals. The proposed changes would require landlords to demonstrate and justify the specific circumstances for formalising a seasonal rental contract.

The Mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, has announced he will introduce the Special Plan for the Protection of Residential Areas in the City of Madrid. This plan will prohibit tourist rentals scattered within residential communities in the historic centre.

The Málaga City Council’s governing team has promoted an amendment to the General Plan (PGOU) to restrict or limit new tourist accommodation in certain neighbourhoods of the city through an urban zoning plan. Specifically, from the amendment’s entry into force, there will be 43 neighbourhoods where

An increasing number of foreign visitors are choosing to rent holiday homes over hotels, drawn by the greater freedom, privacy, and flexibility. This trend has now extended to the renowned Golden Triangle on the Costa del Sol, formed by Marbella, Estepona and Benahavis, where the real estate agency Pure Living Properties states that luxury holiday rentals have increased by 30% between January and August. In this period, it has recorded more reservations than in all of 2023, while the average length of stay has tripled, reaching 18 days.

The government has declared war on holiday rentals and is preparing a raft of measures to regulate tourist flats, such as amending the Horizontal Property Law (LPH) so that the owners' associations can veto holiday homes or creating a single registry platform for properties rented for this purpose. Although the details of the Executive's plan are still unknown, the experts consulted by idealista/news believe that it will not help alleviate Spain's housing problem, since they will not ensure that supply matches demand. 

The Consell de Mallorca will now impose €80,000 fines on anyone who illegally rents a property for tourist purposes. Furthermore, the fines established by law for this issue range from €40,000 to €400,000, and until now the lightest sanctions were being imposed.

Summer has arrived, which means the holiday season is at its peak. Scammers are also at their peak, as a new rental season allows them to scam people.

Everyone's talking about tourist flats. Sometimes, tourists may have different schedules than the rest of the building's tenants. Blocks with homeowners' associations are looking at how to combat this type of rental and often ask whether tourist flat tenants can be banned from using the pool and common areas.

Volantazo in the Barcelona City Council in terms of housing. Mayor Jaume Collboni has presented his plan to address the problem of access to housing suffered by the Catalan capital, with “rental prices skyrocketing and becoming more expensive every day.”

​​​​​​​Rent an apartment on the beachfront will mean an average expense of about 1,160 euros per week, according to the study carried out by Tecnitasa for the month of August. This price is almost 10% more compared to last summer, and more than 40% if we compare it with the summer of 2020, coming out of the worst of the pandemic.

The Secretary General of Consumption, Bibiana Medialdea, estimates that over 90% of the tourist flats registered in some cities in Spain are non-compliant, after learning that the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumption and Agenda 2030 is investigating tourist rental platforms to find listed properties without a license and studies the possibility of opening disciplinary proceedings and imposing fines of up to €100,000. The objective of the investigation is to protect consumers and users from these practices.

Valencia City Council unanimously approved suspending the processing and granting of licences for tourist flats in the city for one year, which can be extended for a further year. The proposal promoted by María José Catalá's city council was approved by all the parties, PP and Vox in the government and Compromís and PSPV-PSOE in the opposition. The suspension will affect temporary accommodation in regular blocks of flats and commercial ground floors in the city that request it, but not blocks of tourist apartments or tourist apartments on the first floors that have an independent access.

The number of tourist properties in Spain has risen sharply in the last year. According to the INE, in February there were 351,389 tourist flats throughout Spain, representing an increase of 9.2% year-on-year. Andalusia is the region with the most units (82,454), followed by the Valencian Community (59,413) and Catalonia (52,598). Currently, tourist flats represent 1.33% of the total residential stock, although their weight exceeds 1% in provinces such as Girona, Malaga, Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas. On the other hand, in Madrid and Barcelona they represent less than 0.7%.

Legally renting a property for tourist purposes implies complying with certain requirements that may vary depending on different factors: whether it is a business or professional activity; where the accommodation is located; whether or not it is in a horizontal property regime... Firstly, you should know who regulates tourist accommodation: the regulations that regulate flats and houses for tourist use in Spain are the responsibility of the autonomous communities and the owners themselves.

Seasonal rentals keep gaining relevance in the real estate market to the detriment of permanent rentals, as a consequence of the successive policies that are driving this phenomenon. In the first quarter of 2024, this type of rental accounted for 11% of the market, with a year-on-year increase in supply of 56%, while the permanent rental supply fell by 15% in the same period.

The Government of the Canary Islands has presented the draft Law on Sustainable Management of the Tourist Accommodation, which will provide city councils with tools to plan and organise the tourist accommodation. The new standard establishes that 90% of the residential buildable area must be used as a permanent residence and explains why the use of accommodation can be enabled. Current properties intended as holiday homes and/or tourist accommodation must meet minimum requirements of sustainability, quality and competitiveness within a period of five years.