Holiday lets in Andalusia: licences, rules and realistic returns.

“It rents for €1,200 a week in summer” is the sentence that sells half the apartments on this coast. Sometimes it is even true. But between that sentence and money in your account sit a licence, a community of owners, running costs and tax, and buyers who skip the middle part buy themselves a problem.

The licence comes first

Short-term tourist rentals in Andalusia require registration as a vivienda de uso turístico (VUT) in the Registro de Turismo de Andalucía. Since March 2025, where a council has used its new powers, you also need its go-ahead before registering, and councils can pause new tourist lets for up to three years. A national registration number was added in July 2025, but in May 2026 the Supreme Court annulled the national register, ruling that the State had no power to create it. The state's data-sharing with the booking platforms stays in place. So for now the Andalusian registration is the one that counts, and it's worth checking the current position before you rely on it. The property itself has to meet requirements: minimum standards set by the Junta that older apartments do not always pass.

The rules here have moved several times in recent years, and enforcement has tightened. Treat anything you read, including this, as a snapshot: the licence question belongs in your lawyer's due diligence, answered for the specific apartment, in writing, before you sign.

Letting rooms in a house you live in yourself is a different category with its own rules, covered in letting rooms in the house you live in.

The community can say no

This is the one that surprises people. Since 3 April 2025, an owner who wants to start a tourist let in a building needs the community's express approval first, voted by three-fifths of all the owners, who must also hold three-fifths of the shares. Lets already running legally before that date can carry on, though whether that protection passes to a buyer is a question for your lawyer. If you buy before letting has started, the vote can still go against you, and statutes that already bar business use of the flats can rule it out. That isn't theoretical: in a case published in the BOE in February 2026, the Benalmádena land registry refused a short-let registration number because the building's statutes banned tourist use, and the refusal was upheld.

So if letting is core to your plan, check the community statutes and recent minutes before the arras, and prefer buildings where short lets are established rather than merely not-yet-banned. Your lawyer can request all of it.

Where things stand, town by town

Councils have started using their power to pause new tourist lets, and it's a patchwork. This is where it stood when we last checked, on 20 October 2026 (Manilva and Estepona on 19 October).

• Manilva, including Duquesa. On 4 December 2025 the council suspended new tourist-let registrations for up to three years in its Zone A, which takes in the Castillo de la Duquesa area, the marina and the Duquesa golf, plus Alcorrín and Chullera. Sabinillas and the pueblo are outside it. A flat already registered keeps its registration, but have your lawyer confirm how it passes to you on a sale. More on the Duquesa page.
• Málaga city. No new tourist lets can be registered anywhere in the municipality since 23 August 2025, for up to three years or until the town plan is revised, whichever comes first. On 24 July 2026 the BOP Málaga published the initial approval of a further change to the plan, and from 25 July 2026 new guest-house and hotel-type use is blocked on residential land as well, again for up to three years. More on the Málaga page.
• Fuengirola. Since 22 February 2024 the council has not processed new tourist-let registrations for homes without an independent entrance, under article 7.1.6 of its town plan (the town hall's notice of 13 August 2024). If the flat is reached through a shared entrance and stairs, ask your lawyer whether it can be registered at all before any rental income goes into your sums.
• Benalmádena. Nothing is in force that we could find. But a report the council commissioned, reported in February 2026, recommends freezing new tourist-let licences where a zone is saturated. It put the coast at 16.6% tourist flats against a proposed limit of 16%, and Arroyo de la Miel at 4% against 5%. The council had already mapped the most saturated zones, the coast and the marina, in September 2024. A buyer counting on letting a flat on the coast should assume a freeze could come. More on the Benalmádena page.
• Estepona. We found no council pause on new tourist lets. The community vote below still applies building by building.

Elsewhere, ask. A council can bring in a pause at short notice, so your lawyer should check the position for the specific address before you sign, not just the town.

The realistic numbers

A well-located two-bed near the beach in a town like Fuengirola can gross a strong summer: peak weeks do fetch €1,000 or more. But a year is not made of peak weeks. Realistic occupancy, a management company taking 15 to 25% (you are not doing changeovers from Limerick), cleaning, utilities, community fees, insurance, platform commissions and Spanish tax on the rental income all eat into the headline.

As a planning rule, we tell buyers: a properly run holiday let on this coast tends to end up with a net yield in the low single digits on the purchase price. Decent money that offsets your running costs and pays for your own flights, absolutely. A property that “pays for itself”? Run those exact numbers for the exact apartment before you believe it.

VAT is about to join that list. A national decree published in the BOE on 7 October 2026 (Real Decreto-ley 29/2026) ends the VAT exemption on short furnished lets from 1 December 2026. A stay of 30 nights or fewer in a home that isn't the owner's main residence will carry VAT at 10%, and so will any let that comes with hotel-type services. Longer stays and ordinary long-term tenancies stay exempt. The decree is already in force, but because Parliament has been dissolved it still has to be confirmed by Congress's standing committee within 30 days of publication, so by early November. If it is confirmed, every short-let booking carries 10% VAT, either on top of the price or out of your share. Ask your gestor how charging and declaring it would work for you before you count the income.

The two-buyer test

The best letting apartments (central, busy, near the noise) are often not the apartments you would want to spend August in yourself. Decide which buyer you are before you search, because “a bit of both” usually delivers neither. We wrote more on that trade-off in the seven mistakes guide.