What the Law Can’t Forbid: Your Rental Rights Under Spain’s New 2025 Rules

From our EOS blog:

Legal tip 1511. What the Law Can’t Forbid: Your Rental Rights Under Spain’s New 2025 Rules
Sunday, July 20, 2025 @ 4:26 PM
 

If you own a property in Spain that you rent out occasionally—especially during the summer—you may have heard about the new National Registry for Short-Term Rentals (NIU), introduced by Royal Decree 1312/2024. From July 1, 2025, all tourist rentals (stays under 30 days promoted on platforms like Airbnb or Booking.com) must be registered nationally.

However, there are key limits to what this law can enforce—and many owners are not being told the full story.

First, the law is not retroactive. If you were already renting your home with a valid tourist licence before July 1, 2025, the new registration requirement does not require new community approval. Several owners have had applications wrongly rejected for lacking community consent when it was not legally required. These decisions can—and should—be appealed.

Second, it’s essential to distinguish tourist rentals from seasonal rentals:

• Tourist rentals involve short stays, advertised to the public, with hospitality-like services. These are regulated by regional tourism laws and must be registered in the NIU.

• Seasonal rentals (arrendamientos de temporada) fall under Spain’s Ley de Arrendamientos Urbanos (LAU). These are private, fixed-term contracts for purposes like holidays, studies or temporary work, not promoted as tourist accommodation. They do not require NIU registration.

And here’s what the law cannot do:
Your community of owners may vote to restrict tourist rentals, but it cannot prohibit seasonal rentals signed under the LAU. These are protected by national housing law and are not considered tourist use, even if they are for short stays.

As new rules come into effect, it’s more important than ever to understand where the law does and does not apply—and how to protect your right to rent legally.

Please feel free to share doubts and questions with us below

Tourist licences are no longer transferable.  If an owner has a tourist licence and sells the property the new owner must apply for a new tourist licence. However, if the community of owners have voted, by over 60% to no longer allow tourist licences, then the new owner will not be allowed to hold one. 

Only in Valencia is it mandatory to apply for a new tourist licence upon transfer of ownership, subject to the current legal requirements. Additionally, community of owners' decisions cannot have retroactive effect.