Author: Nely Puig

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 And much of what you read online is either out of date, overly dramatic, or written by someone with something to sell.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:

1. Andalucía tightened how many holiday rentals an individual owner can register.
2. Spain gave communities of owners the power to say no to holiday rentals in their building.
3. The Spanish Ministerio del Interior made guest data reporting mandatory for every single stay.
4. 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.

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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.

March on the Costa del Sol feels like a month of anticipation. The light is changing, the first visitors are returning, orange blossom is in the air, and in Málaga the city is quietly preparing for the most important week of its year. Semana Santa — Holy Week — is not just a religious event in Málaga. It is history, culture, family and civic identity all at once, and for anyone visiting the city between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday it is impossible to miss.

If you are thinking of coming to Málaga for Semana Santa, or you happen to be here during the week and want to understand what you are watching, this is what you need to know.

The short version

Five things to have in mind before you go near the historic centre during Holy Week:

1. It is one of the most important Holy Weeks in Spain. Málaga’s Semana Santa has been declared a Fiesta of International Tourist Interest and is considered one of the great Holy Weeks of the country, alongside Seville.
2. Málaga’s “tronos” are unique and enormous. Unlike the covered floats used elsewhere in Spain, Málaga’s thrones are open, extraordinarily ornate and so heavy they are carried on the shoulders of hundreds of men.
3. The Spanish Legion carries Cristo de Mena on Maundy Thursday. It is one of the most famous moments of the week and draws tens of thousands of spectators.
4. A prisoner is pardoned every year. A centuries-old tradition, still performed on Holy Wednesday before the procession of Jesús El Rico.
5. Processions fill the streets from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday. Every day brings new brotherhoods, new thrones, new music — and very large crowds.

Why it matters

Málaga’s Holy Week tradition goes back more than five hundred years. The first cofradías and hermandades — the religious brotherhoods that organise and carry the processions — were formed in the sixteenth century, and the week has been celebrated, in one form or another, ever since. It has long been recognised as one of the great Holy Weeks of Spain and declared a Fiesta of International Tourist Interest.

For the city, Semana Santa is not a performance put on for visitors. It is the moment when Málaga’s historic brotherhoods take their most important religious images out of their home churches and process them through the streets. The size, the ornamentation, the silver, the gold, the thousands of flowers on every throne — all of it is the work of a year of preparation by people who do this out of faith, family, and belonging to a place.

What it means to locals

Ask any malagueño about Semana Santa and you will get a personal answer before you get a historical one. Many of the men who carry the thrones — the hombres de trono — do it because their father did it, and their grandfather did it. Membership of a brotherhood is passed down through families. Children are enrolled from a very young age. Teenagers walk for years as penitentes — the robed and hooded figures you see in every procession — before they are trusted to help carry a throne.

For much of the city this is the week that defines their year. Shops close early. Schools are out. Family members travel home to be in Málaga for it. Some brotherhoods have been walking the same route through the same streets, to the same music, for generations.

It is also deeply emotional. There is weeping. There is silence. There is applause when a particularly difficult manoeuvre is completed. And there are moments — especially during the Legion’s procession and the silent processions on Good Friday — when the atmosphere in the city is impossible to describe to someone who has not been there.

The moments you should not miss

Some processions are known well beyond Málaga and are worth planning your week around.

The Legion and Cristo de Mena — Maundy Thursday (Jueves Santo). On the afternoon of Jueves Santo, the Spanish Legion arrives in Málaga and marches through the streets at their distinctive fast pace before helping to carry Cristo de la Buena Muerte — known throughout Spain as “Cristo de Mena”. They sing El Novio de la Muerte, and the image of the throne rocking through the narrow streets in the evening with the Legion marching alongside is one of the most photographed moments in Spanish Holy Week.

The pardoned prisoner — Holy Wednesday (Miércoles Santo). Every year, during the procession of Jesús El Rico, a tradition from the eighteenth century is repeated: one prisoner in Spain is formally pardoned and released to walk with the throne. The story goes that during a plague, inmates were allowed out to carry Rico when no one else would, and the privilege was granted in perpetuity by royal decree. The moment is still observed today.

Palm Sunday (Domingo de Ramos). The first day of processions, beginning with La Pollinica — the image of Christ entering Jerusalem on a donkey, loved by families and children who carry palms along the route.

Good Friday (Viernes Santo). The most solemn day of the week. Silent processions, the image of the dead Christ, and a very different atmosphere from the exuberance of earlier in the week.

How to see it — practical advice

If you are coming to Málaga for Semana Santa, here is what to know before you stand on a kerb at nine in the evening waiting for a procession.

• Plan around the official route. Each day, the processions converge on the recorrido oficial — the official route — which runs through the historic centre along Calle Marqués de Larios and the Alameda Principal. This is where all the major thrones pass.
• Paid seating exists. The city sets up palcos (elevated stands) and sillas (chairs) along the official route which can be booked in advance through the Agrupación de Cofradías. If you want a guaranteed seat for a specific procession, book early.
• Watching for free is perfectly fine — but arrive early. The side streets are free and often more atmospheric than the official route. For any of the famous processions, expect to be standing for two to three hours in a very full crowd.
• Check the schedule each morning. Each day has multiple processions, each with its own timings and route. The local papers and the city tourism office publish daily programmes. Rain can cause last-minute cancellations — a rainy week is devastating for the brotherhoods.
• Dress respectfully. This is a religious event, not a street party. Locals dress up. Shorts and flip-flops will not get you thrown out, but you will feel out of place.
• Be patient and quiet at the right moments. When a throne is being lifted, turned or set down, there is usually a hush followed by applause. Follow the locals and you will know what to do.
• Eat late. Everything runs late during Semana Santa. Restaurants are busy. Book tables in advance, particularly anywhere near the historic centre.

A calmer perspective

Semana Santa in Málaga is not a show put on for tourists. It is one of the things the city does best, and it does it because generations of people have chosen to keep doing it. If you come, come for the right reasons: to see something that matters to the people around you, to watch a city take enormous pride in a tradition it has inherited, and to understand a little more about the place you are in.

You will not forget it.

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Staying in Málaga for Semana Santa?

Hotels and apartments in the historic centre fill up early — Holy Week is one of the busiest weeks of the year in Málaga city. If you are looking for somewhere to stay within walking distance of the official route, have a look at our Málaga City holiday apartments. Both of our properties are in the old town, a few minutes from Calle Larios and the Cathedral.

February on the Costa del Sol is the quiet month before the quiet stops. The Easter bookings are already rolling in, the summer calendar is starting to fill, and the owners who take this season seriously are using these few weeks to get their properties — and their paperwork — ready for the real year. The difference between a smooth season and a stressful one almost always comes down to what was done in February.

Here is the checklist we run through every year on the properties we manage, laid out plainly for owners who want to do the same on their own.

The short version

The work splits cleanly into five areas. None of it is dramatic on its own, but all of it is much easier to handle now than in mid-July with a full house.

1. Maintenance and inventory — sort what is broken, worn or missing while the property is still empty.
2. Photos and listings — refresh anything that looks tired, dated or simply wrong.
3. Pricing — review last year’s numbers and set a realistic calendar for 2025.
4. Paperwork — licences, insurance, community obligations and guest registration.
5. Guest experience — the small things that turn a good stay into a five-star review.

1. Maintenance and inventory

After a winter of little or no use, most holiday rentals need a proper once-over before the season starts. Air conditioning that has not been run for three months. Pool pumps and filters. Hot water systems. Window seals. Balcony furniture that has spent the winter out in the rain. All of these are cheap problems in February and expensive problems in August.

The rule we use is simple: walk through the property as if you were a guest who had just arrived. Try the shower. Open every drawer. Turn on every lamp. Sit on every chair. Check that the remotes actually work. Count the wine glasses. Things that feel fine to an owner passing through for an hour can be very obvious to a family who is trying to live there for a week.

While you are at it, make an honest note of anything that needs replacing. Linens that are past their best. A non-stick pan that is no longer non-stick. A kettle that leaks. A sofa cushion that has lost its shape. None of these are dramatic — and that is exactly why they get forgotten until a guest mentions them in a review.

Priorities: air-conditioning service, pool equipment check, gas and electrical safety, anything with a filter or a flame, bedding and towel stock, kitchen basics.

2. Photos and listings

If your photos are more than two years old, they probably need updating. Furniture moves. Cushions fade. A coffee table you replaced last summer is not in the pictures. A new building across the street changes the view from the terrace. Guests notice when the photos do not match the reality, and when they notice, they leave it in the review.

February is a good month to bring a photographer in. The light is kind, the property is empty, and the photos will carry the listing through the whole high season. Even a modest refresh — a new hero shot, a few updated interiors, a sharper kitchen photo — makes a measurable difference on Airbnb and Booking.com.

While the photographer is working, re-read your listing description. Andalucía has changed in the last two years. Benalmádena has changed. Málaga city has changed. If your copy still talks about “ideal for winter sun” when the reality is that 80% of your bookings are families in July and August, fix it. The listing should describe the property guests actually stay in, not the one you remember from 2019.

3. Pricing for 2025

Look at what you charged last year, what you actually got, and what your calendar looked like. If you were booked solid by April for the whole summer, your prices were too low. If you had August weeks still open in July, they were either too high or your listing was not competitive enough. Both problems are fixable now; neither is fixable in August.

Dynamic pricing tools like PriceLabs, Beyond and Wheelhouse have become standard in the industry and are worth the small monthly fee for most owners. But even without a tool, a simple review of your pricing rules — last-minute discounts, minimum stays, weekend premiums, season boundaries — usually turns up two or three things worth adjusting before the first real wave of bookings.

One point we remind owners of every year: the Costa del Sol market is not in trouble. Demand is strong. The question is rarely whether guests will come — it is whether you are priced sensibly for your property, your location and your direct competition.

4. The paperwork side

This is the unglamorous part, but it is the part that costs owners the most when they get it wrong. Before the season ramps up, make sure:

• Your VUT licence (or equivalent regional tourist rental registration) is valid and displayed on every listing where it is required.
• Your insurance — home, contents and civil liability — specifically covers holiday rental use. Standard residential policies often do not, and discovering that after an incident is not where you want to be.
• Your community-of-owners situation is documented. The rules around what a building can and cannot permit have become stricter, and if you are in a community that is likely to raise the question, you want to know where you stand before a neighbour does.
• Your guest registration process is set up properly. Every overnight stay has to be reported, and the systems and data requirements are stricter than they used to be.

None of this is particularly complicated. It is just the kind of thing that is much easier to handle calmly in February than in the middle of a busy August weekend.

5. Guest experience — the small things

The best-managed properties on the Costa del Sol do not win because of marble worktops or designer furniture. They win because of the small touches: a proper welcome note, a bottle of local wine, a printed guide with genuinely useful tapas recommendations instead of a generic tourist leaflet, towels that have actually been replaced this year, sheets that smell of detergent and not of winter storage.

Before the season starts, walk through what a new guest experiences in their first hour: the key handover, the arrival instructions, the Wi-Fi password, the air-conditioning remote, the kettle, the first coffee of the holiday. If any of those are awkward, fix them now. Most five-star reviews are written — or lost — in that first hour.

Our own welcome packs get reviewed and refreshed every February. Small things we have added recently: a one-page Spanish-to-English cheat sheet for common restaurant phrases, a short note about tap water (safe to drink on the Costa del Sol, but guests always ask), and a clearer map of where to park.

A calmer perspective

None of this is difficult. It is just work — the kind of work that is easy to postpone in February and impossible to do in July. The owners who put in two or three focused weekends now tend to spend the rest of the year dealing with real holidays and happy guests, instead of crises and refunds.

The 2025 season will reward the people who are ready when it arrives.

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Ready to hand this over?

If you would rather not spend your February weekends on maintenance checklists, photographer visits and insurance paperwork, that is exactly what we do. Our team manages a portfolio of properties across Benalmádena, Mijas Costa, Marbella, Málaga city and beyond — end-to-end, from legal compliance to the welcome note on the kitchen table.

Have a look at our Property Management page to see what is included and what our 25% flat fee covers.