The government, via the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda, is pursuing a broad strategy to regulate the different rental formats: long-term, seasonal, and tourist leases. After the housing law was approved in May 2023, focusing mainly on traditional long-term arrangements, officials have been refining rules to address price pressures in temporary and tourist options. This regulatory push has repeatedly clashed with housing powers largely held by autonomous communities and municipalities, many governed by parties opposed to such controls.
The ministry, now led by Isabel Rodríguez, introduced measures within the housing law aimed at slowing the rise of costs in traditional rentals, those governed by the urban lease framework and typically lasting at least five years. The package included caps on rent renewals and the possibility to limit prices by designating areas as rent-pressure zones. In practice, the effectiveness of the latter measure has been limited at best, since only Catalonia has implemented it, while other regions allied with the PP have not.
Yet, because long-term contracts have limited capacity and other formats offer higher profitability, many property owners have shifted properties to tourist or seasonal leases. The former covers stays of days or a few weeks, while the latter can extend up to eleven months. Seasonal leases are commonly used for rooms rented to students or young professionals, creating a distinct competitive landscape for housing stock across municipalities.
On Wednesday, the Ministry of Housing planned to present a regulatory framework for temporary or mid-stay rentals. In a Tuesday interview on La Ser, Isabel Rodríguez suggested the need to pursue fraud or abuse of the law, for example by chaining temporary contracts to dodge the five-year duration requirement or price caps on renewals. The aim is to close loopholes that allow evading established limits while keeping lawful rental activity intact.
The government has also highlighted a broader push to align these efforts with national goals. The prime minister framed the temporary rental regulations within a broader agenda to curb tourist apartments. In a separate interview, Sánchez referenced ideas such as a national registry of tourist flats and reforms to the horizontal property law. This initiative will be discussed further in a working group that includes the Ministries of Industry and Tourism, formed late last year.
“The political message is that the government will not ignore this issue and, with the tools available, given the many competences in the hands of regional and local authorities, it will help resolve a major driver of higher rental prices,” the prime minister asserted. The statement underscores the balance between central guidance and decentralized governance in housing policy.
Seasonal Rentals Under Scrutiny
To date, the Ministry has offered limited detail on the new regime for temporary or mid-stay leases. In that interview, Rodríguez noted that the objective is to preserve the long-term rental law while addressing the specific causes behind seasonal accommodations. If there is no legitimate reason for a rental to be temporary, then a temporary contract should not be possible, thereby avoiding abuse. Tenants were urged to report contracts that lack a valid temporary basis.
In Catalonia, authorities moved to regulate this type of housing in April, but the measure was struck down by the Parliament’s Permanent Commission. The regional rule required landlords to justify why a contract should be temporary according to defined criteria. The setback reveals the political complexity of regulating mid-stay housing in a landscape where regional majorities vary across parties.
The voting results reveal the dispositions of conservative factions, including the PP and Vox. If the national rule depends on regional approval, its effectiveness may be limited, especially since some regions are not governed by right-leaning coalitions. Only the Basque Country, Asturias, Navarre, Catalonia, and Castilla-La Mancha escape right-leaning governance in this context.
Tourist Rentals and Local Consensus
In contrast to seasonal and traditional leases, there is broader agreement on regulating tourist rentals. City administrations across the political spectrum have proposed measures to curb the growth of short-term tourist housing. For example, Madrid’s mayor imposed a moratorium on new vacation licenses while advancing a concrete regulatory framework and higher penalties for illegal properties, rising from 1,000 to 30,000 euros. Barcelona’s city representative announced that, from 2028, existing legal licenses for tourist flats would be phased out, signaling a turning point in the regulation of tourist housing. These moves reflect growing concern about housing availability for residents and the impact on neighborhoods.
The social response to tourism housing has included protests in multiple cities, with participants arguing that the surge harms affordable housing and community stability. In Málaga, city leadership acknowledged that the issue particularly affects young residents and called on regional and national authorities to consider a tourism tax, stricter enforcement against illegal tourist housing, and subsidies to households facing economic hardship.
A potential regulatory path involves reforming the horizontal property law to empower communities of neighbors to veto tourist housing installations. The current framework requires the votes of at least three-fifths of residents to approve these activities, a threshold that proves difficult in many buildings. The administration has indicated that future changes would require neighbor consent for such ventures to operate under new rules.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Rights, Social Welfare, Consumption, and the 2030 Agenda launched a June inquiry to pursue and sanction unlicensed tourist housing advertised on platforms like Airbnb and Booking. The ministry issued requests to platforms, which have yet to respond, while arguing that their role is hosting listings rather than managing ownership. In addition, housing authorities are finalizing a plan to create a single registry of contracts processed via digital platforms to expose and combat contractual fraud.
Overall, the housing agenda seeks to harmonize central policy with local administration, recognizing that much regulation remains a regional matter, while aiming to curb price pressures and protect access to housing for residents. The evolving framework will unfold through ongoing negotiations, regulatory drafts, and enforcement actions across the country. These developments are monitored by national, regional, and municipal authorities and cited as central to understanding the future landscape of housing and rental markets in Spain.