If you own a holiday rental on the Costa del Sol — or you’re thinking about it — the last eighteen months have probably felt a bit alarming. New decrees. A sudden community-of-owners vote. Mandatory guest reporting to the Ministerio del Interior. A freeze on new licences in Málaga city. Headlines about the Junta cancelling thousands of registrations.
It’s a lot. And much of what you read online is either out of date, overly dramatic, or written by someone with something to sell.
This is the plain-English version. What actually changed, why it changed, and what it means for you as an owner.
The short version
Four things shifted between late 2024 and late 2025:
- Andalucía tightened how many holiday rentals an individual owner can register.
- Spain gave communities of owners the power to say no to holiday rentals in their building.
- The Spanish Ministerio del Interior made guest data reporting mandatory for every single stay.
- Málaga city froze new holiday rental registrations for up to three years.
None of these mean the end of holiday rentals on the Costa del Sol. But together, they mean that running a rental legally takes more paperwork, more attention, and more awareness of rules that change faster than most owners can keep up with. Let’s walk through them.
1. The VUT licence is not optional, and the Junta is enforcing
Andalucía’s short-term rental framework was established back in 2016 (Decreto 28/2016) and updated in 2024 (Decreto 31/2024). The core rule is simple: any property rented to tourists must be registered in the Registro de Turismo de Andalucía as a Vivienda de Uso Turístico, or VUT. Renting without one is illegal, and fines start at €2,000 and escalate quickly for repeat offences.
What’s new is enforcement. Over the past year the Junta de Andalucía cancelled more than 10,000 VUT registrations — properties that were on the register but either didn’t meet the requirements or couldn’t produce the paperwork when asked. If your registration is missing the habitability certificate, the right insurance, correct owner details, or even a clear photo set, it’s now genuinely at risk.
The other change in Decreto 31/2024: an individual owner can hold a maximum of two VUT registrations. Beyond that, the properties need a different classification — typically Apartamentos Turísticos under Decreto 194/2010, which actually offers stronger regulatory protection, but is a different application process and a different rulebook.
What this means for you: if you already have a VUT, now is the time to double-check that your paperwork is clean, your insurance is valid, and your registration details match reality. If you own more than two properties and rent them all short-term, you are in the territory where you need to look seriously at re-classification.
2. Your community of owners now has a veto
This is the change that caught most owners by surprise. Since April 2025, under Ley Orgánica 1/2025, tourist rental is prohibited by default in any building held under horizontal property — which is to say, most apartment buildings in Spain.
Prohibited by default. That’s the phrase to pay attention to.
To register a new VUT in an apartment building, you now need approval from 3/5 of the owners and 3/5 of the participation quotas (the share of the building each owner owns, which isn’t always the same as the owner count). That’s a meaningful hurdle, and it’s become the single biggest reason new registrations fall through.
The law is not retroactive. Existing registrations from before April 2025 keep their rights. But if your neighbours decide to hold a community vote on the issue, or if you’re buying a new property with the intention of renting it, you need to prepare the case carefully — and often bring in a local abogado to make sure the vote is properly convened, minuted, and filed.
What this means for you: if your registration is already on file, breathe. If you’re planning new registrations, assume the community vote is now part of the timeline. Start the conversation early, come prepared, and don’t let it become a surprise the week before your first booking.
3. SES Hospedajes — the reporting nobody wants to do themselves
SES Hospedajes is the Ministerio del Interior’s platform for mandatory guest data reporting, introduced under Real Decreto 933/2021. Every single stay must be uploaded to the platform within 24 hours of check-in, with full identity documents for every guest.
Missed reports carry fines up to €30,000.
Nobody enjoys SES Hospedajes. It’s clunky, it’s in Spanish, and it requires extracting passport and ID data in a very specific format. But it is now non-negotiable, and the inspection regime is real. If you manage your own rental, you are the person who has to log into the portal for every single booking and enter the data within the deadline.
What this means for you: unless you are already in the habit of reporting every guest on time, every time, this is the single most common compliance gap among independent owners — and the one with the largest fines attached. It’s worth either building the habit, using SES-compliant PMS software, or handing it to a manager who does it automatically.
4. Málaga city’s moratorium — but not the end of Málaga
In August 2025 the city of Málaga introduced a moratorium on new VUT registrations inside the city boundary, lasting up to three years while the city reviews its tourism strategy.
Important detail: the moratorium only affects new registrations. Properties that were already on the register before the freeze are protected and can continue operating normally. If you bought a flat in Málaga in 2024 and registered it then, you are fine. If you bought in 2025 and haven’t registered yet, you’ve got a problem — and depending on the property, the answer may be an alternative classification, a longer-stay model, or a different timeline.
The moratorium does not extend to Benalmádena, Torremolinos, Fuengirola, Mijas, Marbella or the rest of the Costa del Sol. Each municipality is watching Málaga closely, but none have followed with their own freeze at the time of writing.
What this means for you: if you’re inside the Málaga city boundary and not yet registered, get advice before you make any plans. If you’re anywhere else on the coast, the moratorium doesn’t apply to you directly — but the underlying trend (cities taking more control of their tourism footprint) is one to pay attention to over the next year or two.
A calmer perspective
Taken one at a time, none of these changes is catastrophic. Taken together, they mark a shift: the Costa del Sol holiday rental market is becoming a regulated industry, the way hotels are regulated. That means more paperwork and less improvisation, but it also means stronger legal protection for owners who are doing things properly, and a cleaner market overall.
The owners who struggle in this environment are the ones trying to keep up with four moving pieces of legislation in four different languages, alone, on top of running the actual rental. The owners who do well are the ones who either build the compliance habit themselves or delegate it to someone whose entire job is keeping it clean.
Ready to hand this over?
At Viva Costa del Sol we handle the VUT registration and renewals, file SES Hospedajes for every booking automatically, support owners through the community-of-owners vote when it’s needed, and work with local abogados for properties that need re-classification or are caught by the Málaga moratorium. It’s all included in a single 25% flat management fee — no add-ons, no surprise invoices.
If you’d like to know exactly where your property stands under the 2024–2025 rules, have a look at the Property Management page or get in touch for a free, no-pressure compliance assessment.
