The general unrest among locals over the spiralling number of tourist accommodations in Spain has reached boiling point as now community property owners associations will get a veto over homes being used for holidaymakers. The new Spanish law is coming into effect tomorrow which will make it increasingly difficult for properties to be used as tourist accommodation.
A change to Spain’s Horizontal Property Law will mean homeowners wanting to make extra cash by renting it out to holidaymakers will need approval from their community association as well as a tourist licence.This reverses the long-standing policy where short-term holiday lets could be set up in apartment blocks without the need for any input or permission required from neighbours.
Up to this week, a community could only retrospectively overturn the use of a property for tourism if they got a three-fifths majority at a meeting but both “prior” and “express” permission will now be needed to legally charge rent on an apartment in Spain, authorities said.
However, tourism licences can only be blocked if the whole community or urbanisation prohibits them, this veto also extends to the use of homes for business purposes.
The president of Madrid’s Professional Association of Property Administrators, Julia Martinez Torres, told the El Mundo newspaper: “This regulation was necessary to avoid tensions in coexistence and this previous step is a step forward to approve or disapprove this economic activity in a residential building.”
The Horizontal Property Law update is just one of the several measures the government is introducing to curb and crackdown on short term holiday rentals.
In January Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced plans to slap a 100 percent tax on foreign buyers looking to purchase second homes in the country in a bid to tackle its housing affordability issues and high rents.
Property prices in Spain, especially in tourist areas, are rising to unprecedented levels, fuelled by tourism and a housing shortage meaning young people in Spain are struggling to get on the ladder as prices soar. This problem is particularly evident in key cities like Barcelona and Madrid where locals say they are being priced out of the property market.
According to Spanish property website Idealista, rental prices in Spain rose by 11.5% in 2024, reaching an all-time high in December.