Law for holiday rentals in Spain: what to do?

Partly in response to the success of property rental platforms such as Airbnb, Holidaylettings and Homeaway the national government of Spain found it was time for a law for holiday rentals in Spain. Nothing wrong with that – but Madrid decided to devolve regulatory powers over holiday rentals to regional governments. That was when chaos set in. There has been an avalanche of local laws, requirements and regulations that are constantly changing, leaving many people confused. So what to do?

Law for holiday rentals in Spain

Just in the month of May almost 650,000 tourists stayed in privately rented accommodations in Spain. Hoteliers consider holiday rentals as unfair competition and hotel lobbies therefore started to put pressure on lawmakers to strangle the business with regulations. There’s now a struggle between people who want to deregulate the market and those who think the answer is even more regulation.

Different rules and regulations

In the Balearics (Menorca, Ibiza and Mallorca) property owners can’t legally rent out an apartment to tourists without a licence. Coincidence or not, these licences haven’t been granted for years. That means only owners of villas and townhouse can still get a tourist rental licence today. As a result most apartments rented out for holidays in the Balearics are illegal. In tourist areas in the Canaries renting to tourists is now even prohibited (this is being reviewed for legality by the competition authority). Although not as bad, the law for holiday rentals in Spain resulted in strange rules in some other areas as well:

• In Aragon there is a minimum room size.
• In Madrid you are obliged to offer your guests wifi.
• In Andalusia your property needs to have (fixed!) air conditioning units in every room if you want to rent between May and September. The same goes for heating if you rent between October and April.
• In the Basque Country you would need to own a minimum of two properties before you can offer them as holiday rentals.
• In non-tourist areas of the Canaries property owners need to offer solid-frame coat hangers, a hairdryer in the bathroom and an iron and ironing board.

So what to do?

There is a good argument for a law for holiday rentals in Spain but the problem now is a mess of poorly-drafted regional regulations that leave many confused. Do you wish to rent out your property to tourists in Andalusia or on the Costa del Sol? Then these are the rules you should take into account (in Spanish). You can also read more about the rules in Andalusia / on the Costa del Sol here. There are experts who can give you personal advice and can help you register your property for tourist purposes. We will gladly put you in contact with them.

Article source: Spanish Property Insight