Renting it out · 1 October 2026 · 4 min read
Letting rooms in the house you live in.
Buy a bigger house than you need, live in part of it and let a room or two to cover the bills. It's a plan we hear more and more, especially from people looking inland where houses are bigger for the money. It can work well, but in Andalusia letting a room to visitors and letting one to someone who lives there are two different things, with different rules.
Rooms for visitors
Short stays for tourists come under Andalusia's rules on tourist homes, which have a category for letting by the room. To use it, the owner has to live in the house and be registered on the padrón there. The house can take at most six guests, with no more than four in any one room. Before you take a booking, you register with the Andalusian tourism register by making a responsible declaration that the house meets the rules. Town councils can set their own limits on tourist lets as well, so check the town before you buy. Letting a whole apartment works differently again, and that's in holiday lets in Andalusia.
A lodger who lives with you
Letting a room to someone who lives there long term is not a tourist let. It's a private agreement between you and them. Whether Spain's main tenancy law applies to a room in a house the owner also lives in is a question for your lawyer, and the answer decides things like how much notice either of you has to give. Get a written agreement drawn up properly from the start: it costs little and saves a lot of trouble if things go wrong.
Tax on the rent
Rent is income, so it goes on your tax return, in Spain once you're resident there. When a home is let to someone as their permanent home, Spain cuts the taxable rent by 50% on contracts from 26 May 2023, and by more in some cases. That cut doesn't apply to tourist or seasonal lets. Whether it applies to a room let to a lodger is something to confirm with your gestor for your own case. Residency and the day count are in the 183-day guide.
Before you buy for it
If letting rooms is part of how the numbers work, check it before you buy, not after. That means whether the town allows tourist lets, whether the house has the paperwork to be registered, and whether your insurance will cover paying guests or a lodger. On an older house the building matters as much as the rules, which is in getting an older house surveyed.
Spending part of the year here?
Our free Wintering in Spain guide covers the tax days, pensions, healthcare, running costs and the car, checked against the official sources.