Tourist rental licences for new builds in Spain, region by region

Spain has no single national tourist licence. A tourist rental is regulated by the autonomous community, which runs the tourism register; by the town hall, which decides through its planning rules where tourist use is allowed; and, in a building divided into flats, by the community of owners. All three must say yes. A developer's brochure or an agent's assurance that a unit is ‘suitable for holiday lets’ is not a licence.

Most regions use a declaración responsable: you declare that the home meets the requirements and are entered in the register, and the authorities check afterwards. A false declaration leads to cancellation and fines, so the requirements matter even when nobody inspects before you start.

Community approval. Since 3 April 2025, Ley Orgánica 1/2025 has amended the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal: an owner who wants to start a tourist rental in a building under horizontal property needs the express prior approval of the community, by a vote of three-fifths of the owners representing three-fifths of the participation quotas (arts. 7.3 and 17.12 LPH). The same majority can set conditions, and can raise the community fees of tourist homes by up to 20%. Agreements do not apply retroactively, and tourist homes already registered before 3 April 2025 can continue under the regional rules that apply to them.

The national register was annulled. Real Decreto 1312/2024 created a single national register for short-term lets, compulsory from 1 July 2025. In May 2026 the Supreme Court annulled the register (judgment 620/2026 of 19 May 2026, on an appeal by the Generalitat Valenciana; a second judgment of 1 June 2026 on an appeal by the Región de Murcia was published in the BOE on 18 July 2026), holding that the State lacks competence to create it. The digital single window through which platforms report rental data to the authorities survives. In practice, the number that must appear on listings is again the regional tourism registration number.

• Ask the town hall, not the sales office, whether tourist use is allowed at that address under current planning, and whether any suspension or cap applies to the zone.
• Read the community statutes the developer will register with the title deed. Developers can include a clause permitting or banning tourist use; a permission in the statutes from the outset avoids depending on a later three-fifths vote. Your lawyer should check it before you sign the purchase contract.
• Check the timing. You can only register once the home is finished and has its first-occupation licence or equivalent; in the islands, minimum-age rules may delay tourist use by years.
• Plan for alternatives. If a tourist licence is uncertain, model the home as a long-term let too, and see whether the numbers still work in our net yield guide.

For the wider investment picture, see investing in new builds. Developments where our advisors have confirmed the tourist-use position are flagged on the developments page.