Spanish Holiday rentals as Homes for touristic use in Andalusia. Let’s take a look into the future

Are you the owner of a property in Malaga, Benalmadena, Fuengirola, Mijas, Marbella, Estepona, Sotogrande or any other town along the Mediterranean coast and you rent it out or you are thinking of renting it out as a holiday home?

Then you might have heard of rumours that there is a law in Spain that obliges the owner to comply with a series of requirements and some additional measures in order to rent it out.

In fact this Regional – Spanish law does not exist yet, but the legislative bodies of Andalusia’s regional government, or the so known “Junta de Andalucía”, is studying and debating the draft regulations. The definitive version and subsequent approval is expected to be ready by the end of 2014.  

It all started with the modifications made to the current (state) Urban Leases Act that was modified by means of the Spanish Law 4/2013, of 4 June, on measures to promote and increase the flexibility of the residential rental market in Spain. Said law modifies certain provisions of the current Urban Leases Act, amongst others article 5. This article determines to which kind of leases this law is considered not to be applicable. Specifically those stated in section e) are not included: The temporary lease of the total use of a furnished and equipped property for immediate use, commercialized and promoted through tourism channels with profit-making purposes and subject to a specific regime from the sector-based legislation.  

The law leads us to a first conclusion: as long as this specific regime has not been approved, this kind of holiday renting will remain regulated by the provisions of the Urban renting Act as well as by the provisions of the Law on Leases of non-residential uses. In accordance with article 3, section 2 of this law: Specially the leases of Spanish properties for seasonal use, either for the summer or any other season, will be considered non-residential use leases.

Therefore, it shall not be required for the time being to fulfil any “special” conditions or requirements to rent out a house as holiday home in Spain. But time goes by and as said before, sooner or later this law might be approved and might come into force.  

It might be interesting to have a look at the contents of this Spanish draft regulation. It is fundamentally based on the only law that currently is valid on this topic in all of Spain, the one in Catalonia (other Autonomous Communities such as Madrid and Valencia are also studying the draft regulation).  In this way, we can study the nature and the sense of the future law and assess our possibilities to adapt to this new law. Be sure to follow the blog of our law office in Marbella. Soon we will publish the second part of this article.

Do not hesitate to contact one of the professional lawyers and accountants of our law firm in the event you have any legal, tax and accountancy query.