From April 3rd 2025, it will be harder for homeowners with flats and apartments in shared residential buildings in Spain to convert them into short-term holiday lets for tourists.

With tourist numbers at historic highs and a serious housing crisis caused by rental and property prices hitting record levels, Spain’s national government is finally taking action against vacation rentals such as those on Airbnb.

Legislative powers are often decentralised in Spain, so cities and regions across the country have slowly been introducing their own regulations for tourist apartments over the last few years, including Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Málaga and Seville, from no longer issuing tourist licences to rules on where they can open and the types of buildings they can open in.

But from April 3rd 2025, there will be a new rule regarding vacation rentals which will affect the whole country. If a rental is located a residential building shared with others, owners will now need permission from the building’s homeowners’ association (comunidad de vecinos) in order to legally operate, as well as to obtain a tourist licence.

In order to do this, the Socialist-led government is making a change to the Horizontal Property Law in a bid to stop the proliferation of vacation rentals.

The legal change was included in Organic Law 1/2025 and published in the Official State Gazette (BOE) at the beginning of this year, but the legislation has a period of three months to come into force, with the deadline being April 3rd.

The new law now states: “You must previously obtain the express approval of the community of owners,” and clarifies that the decision must be made with the support of at least three-fifths of the owners.

Previously, neighbourhood associations had some say in the matter, but this now gives them more power.

Royal Decree 7/2019, which came into force six years ago, said that associations could “limit or condition” holiday rentals in the building if three-fifths of the owners agreed, but there were several times when they had to go through lengthy court battles.

The law now goes one step further stating specifically that landlords need to obtain “prior express approval” and also says that the neighbours have the right to report any tourist apartments that are operating without their consent.

“The president of the homeowners’ association, on his/her own initiative or on the initiative of any of the owners or occupants, will require whoever carries out the activity, without it having been expressly approved, to immediately cease it, under warning of initiating appropriate judicial actions,” the law states.

It’s important to note that this new law will not have a retroactive effect. Therefore, if you already have a tourist licence and operate the short-term let legally, the association will not be able to vote against it.

The rule says: “Any property owner who is carrying out the activity prior to the entry into force of the law, who has previously complied with the tourism sector regulations, may continue to carry out the activity with the conditions and deadlines established therein”.

Pedro Sánchez’s government hopes that this will put a stop to the rise of tourist apartments in major cities across the country and in turn help to combat the housing crisis.

This is just one of many measures that they’ve introduced. Last month Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced a raft of new rules aimed at improving the country’s housing crisis, including cracking down on seasonal rentals and limiting non-resident foreigners from buying homes.