Andalucia to limit short-term rentals from start of 2024

The number of private tourist accommodation has ballooned to such proportions that some districts have more Airbnb flats than residents

The Andalucian government (Junta de Andalucia) is the latest regional authority to take steps to curb the mushrooming of private tourist accommodation in its urban areas with a new decree, which will be finalized in January 2024. The goal of the new legislation will be to ease the tense housing situation in towns along the popular Costa del Sol.

The situation in question has become too rampant to control and it threatens to turn old urban areas in the southern Spanish region into fully-fledged tourist resorts.

EuroWeeklyNews cited statistics showing that in 2010, there were 346,921 tourist beds in all types of accommodation (hotels, guesthouses, hostels, and aparthotels) in the 20 largest Spanish cities. By the end of that decade, this number had grown to 788,136 beds, of which 82% were private short-term rentals on platforms like Airbnb.

How will Andalucia cap the rise of tourist accommodation?

Among these cities, Andalucian cities like Seville and Malaga have shown that they already have districts where there are more short-term rentals than full-time living residents.

The Junta is thus considering taking different lines of action, which will form part of the legislation in question.

For one, town councils will have the power to declare ‘saturated areas’ when they get reports of a shortage of housing supply in their markets. In addition, neighbourhood communities living in a building will have the power to decide whether tourist accommodation should be allowed on the premises. There will need to be approval by 60% of the owners.

Finally, there will be specific mandatory conditions to comply with for entrepreneurs providing private tourist accommodation. These will be things like minimum surface area, establishing a maximum number of tenants depending on the surface area, having air conditioning or even installing a noise level meter.