Renting it out · 2 July 2026 · 6 min read
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 the Supreme Court annulled that register in May 2026, so for now the Andalusian registration is the one that counts. 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.
The community can say no
This is the one that surprises people. Since 3 April 2025, a new tourist let in a building needs the express approval of three-fifths of the owners, who also hold three-fifths of the shares. Lets already running legally before that date can carry on. Some buildings on the coast have done exactly that, and buildings that allow lets can change their statutes after you buy.
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.
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.
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.
Buying to let?
Our free Buying to Let guide covers holiday-let registration, what the flat needs, the council and the community, long lets, and the tax in Spain and Ireland, checked against the official sources.