Holiday lets and your community of owners in Andalusia

The short answer

The essentials, before the detail:

Since when

Since 3 April 2025, when Ley Orgánica 1/2025's reform of the Spanish Horizontal Property Act (Ley de Propiedad Horizontal, LPH) came into force.

New holiday lets

Need the community's prior, express approval (art. 7.3 LPH). Silence is not permission.

Majority

Three-fifths of all owners, who together hold three-fifths of the participation quotas (art. 17.12 LPH). The same majority can approve, limit, condition or ban the activity.

Lets already running

Can continue if, before 3 April 2025, they were already operating under the tourism rules (LPH second additional provision).

Surcharge

With the same majority, the community can raise the holiday let's share of common charges by up to 20%.

Retroactivity

The law states expressly that these agreements are not retroactive.

What changed on 3 April 2025

Since 2019 the LPH let a community limit or condition holiday letting with a three-fifths majority. In October 2024 the full civil chamber of the Supreme Court confirmed that the same majority was enough to ban it (judgments 1232/2024 and 1233/2024). But the starting point was unchanged: you could let unless the community voted against.

Ley Orgánica 1/2025 reversed that. The new article 7.3 says an owner who wants to use their home for tourist letting "must first obtain the express approval of the community of owners". The rule is now that you cannot, unless the community votes in favour.

Spain's housing ministry put it this way when the reform took effect: the community's express agreement is needed "without having to amend the deed of division or the statutes". In other words, no statute change is needed to approve or refuse you; a meeting resolution with the right majority is enough.

Approval is per property and must be express. Months without a complaint are not permission.

How the three-fifths majority is counted

The law requires a vote in favour from "three-fifths of all owners who, in turn, represent three-fifths of the participation quotas". Two details matter:

1. It is counted against every owner in the building, not just those at the meeting. In a block of 20 flats you need 12 votes in favour, even if only 13 owners turn up.

2. Both conditions must be met at once: number of owners and quotas. If 12 of 20 owners vote yes but their quotas add up to 55%, the motion fails, because it does not reach 60% of the quotas.

In practice: ask the president or the administrator to put your request on the agenda of the next general meeting, with your property's address and reference. If it passes, ask for a certificate of the resolution signed by the secretary or administrator. That is the document the Junta de Andalucía will ask for.

If your holiday let was running before April 2025

The LPH's second additional provision protects the owner who was already carrying on the activity before the reform took effect and who "had previously come under the sector's tourism rules". That owner "may continue the activity on the conditions and terms set out in those rules".

What counts is being inside the tourism system before 3 April 2025, not having bought the property before then. In a July 2025 decision, the Directorate General for Legal Certainty and Public Faith confirmed that a home with a tourist licence dated 10 April 2025 needed community approval, even though the owner argued it had been prepared earlier.

On top of that, a later agreement limiting or banning the activity is not retroactive. If you were operating lawfully before the cut-off, a vote held afterwards does not force you to stop.

Keep the evidence: your Andalusian tourism registry resolution with its date, and some trace of activity from before April 2025, such as bookings or invoices. If it is ever disputed, that is what you will need.

The protection refers to the tourism rules. It says nothing about the statutes. If your statutes already prohibited the activity, read the next section.

When the statutes forbid it

The Junta de Andalucía states in its FAQ that homes in buildings whose deed or community statutes "contain an express prohibition of tourist accommodation" do not qualify as tourist homes.

The prohibition does not have to say "holiday let" in so many words. In November 2023 the Supreme Court (judgments 1643/2023 and 1671/2023) held that holiday letting is an economic activity, so statutes banning economic, professional or commercial use of the flats exclude it too. In those cases it ordered the activity to stop.

Is there a way out? The law says the three-fifths majority applies to approving the activity "whether or not it amends the deed of division or the statutes". If your statutes forbid it, that is the route: a resolution with that majority expressly approving it.

Before buying to let, or before filing anything, ask the administrator for a copy of the statutes and check the land registry extract (nota simple), which the Junta will ask for anyway.

What the community can charge you: up to 20% more

The same article 17.12 lets the community, with the same three-fifths majority, set special charges or increase the share of common expenses paid by the home where the tourist activity takes place, "provided these changes do not mean an increase above 20%".

For example, if your share of the common charges is €100 a month, the surcharge cannot take it above €120. And because the agreement is not retroactive, you cannot be charged it for months before the meeting that approved it.

If you think a resolution is unlawful, there is a deadline to challenge it in court: three months from the meeting, or one year if it breaches the law or the statutes. If you were absent, the clock starts when the resolution is notified to you. To challenge, you must be up to date with your community payments or deposit the debt with the court (art. 18 LPH).

What happens if you let without community approval

Article 7.3 is blunt: the president, on their own initiative or at any neighbour's request, will demand that you "immediately cease" the activity, on notice of legal action.

If you carry on, the general meeting can authorise the president to sue under the cessation action in article 7.2. The judge can order an immediate stop as an interim measure and, if the community wins, as well as a permanent stop and any damages, can bar you from using the property for up to three years.

On the administrative side, if you do not provide the community certificate, the Junta will ask for it with a 10-working-day deadline. If you miss it, it starts cancelling your registration.

How this fits with the Andalusian registry and the national register

In Andalusia a holiday home is registered with the Registro de Turismo de Andalucía through a declaración responsable, a sworn statement of compliance (Decreto 31/2024). With it, the Junta asks for two documents: an up-to-date land registry extract and a certificate from the community's secretary or administrator "recording the express approval, still in force" for tourist use of the home.

From 1 July 2025 Spain's national short-term rental register (Registro Único de Arrendamientos, Real Decreto 1312/2024) was also mandatory, run by the land registrars. For homes that started after 3 April 2025, registrars asked for community approval before issuing a number, as the July 2025 decision mentioned above confirmed.

In May 2026 the Supreme Court annulled that national register (judgment 620/2026), because the state has no power to create a register that overlaps the regional ones. The national digital single window and the platforms' duty to send data remain. In Andalusia, the registration that counts is the one with the Registro de Turismo de Andalucía.

The annulment of the national register changes none of the above. Community approval comes from the Horizontal Property Act and is still mandatory.

Málaga city: the community is not the only gate

In the municipality of Málaga, your neighbours' vote is not enough to open a new holiday let:

Since 23 August 2025 new tourist homes (VUT) have been suspended across the whole municipality, for up to three years or until the amended city plan (PGOU) is approved.

That is separate from the moratorium approved on 16 July 2026 and in force since 25 July, which for up to three years blocks new hotels, hostels and tourist apartments on residential land.

These suspensions stop new registrations; they do not close homes already registered. Elsewhere in the province, check with your town hall too: Decreto 31/2024 lets municipalities restrict the activity by area.

Checklist

If you want to start letting a flat in a community to tourists:

1. Read the statutes and the land registry extract. Look for any ban on tourist use or on economic activities.

2. Check with your town hall that new tourist homes are allowed at your address. In Málaga city, they currently are not.

3. Get your request on the general meeting agenda, and count votes against all owners and all quotas.

4. If it passes, get the certificate of the resolution signed by the secretary or administrator.

5. File the declaración responsable with the Registro de Turismo de Andalucía, with the land registry extract and the certificate.

If your holiday let was already running before 3 April 2025:

1. Keep your dated registration resolution and evidence of activity from before that date.

2. Read the meeting minutes: if a surcharge is approved, check it is no more than 20% and is not applied to earlier months.

3. If you disagree with a resolution, note the date. You have three months to challenge it, or one year if it breaches the law or the statutes.

The next step

If your registration and your community are in order, what is left is making the home earn without causing trouble in the building, because good relations with the neighbours who vote depend on it. Below you can see how we work with owners in Málaga and estimate what your property could earn.