A lot of people buy on the coast with a quiet second thought at the back of their mind: we could let it out when we’re not using it, and let it help pay for itself. That’s a perfectly sensible plan — but it now comes with a catch that a good deal of the advice online glosses over. Short-term tourist letting in Spain has been getting steadily more regulated, and not every property can legally be let.
So before you fall for a place and start doing sums on nightly rates, the honest question isn’t how much could it earn? It’s can it be let at all?
What a “holiday let” actually is here
In Spain, letting a property to holidaymakers on a short-term basis is a regulated activity — not the free-for-all people sometimes assume from the Airbnb listings they see. In Andalucía these are generally known as a VUT (vivienda de uso turístico) — a dwelling for tourist use — and they sit under rules set at both the regional (Andalucía) level and, increasingly, the municipal (town-hall) level.
The practical upshot is that a property usually needs to be properly registered as a tourist let, and it has to meet the conditions that apply where it sits. Those conditions, and the appetite of the local authority for new tourist lets, vary from town to town — and they have been tightening.
The rules have been moving in one direction
I won’t pretend to quote you chapter and verse, because the detail changes and it differs by area — anyone who gives you a confident single number is guessing. But the direction of travel is clear enough to plan around: towards more regulation, not less.
Spain has also been moving towards tighter national registration for short-term lets — the idea of a single registry and a registration number that a property needs before it can be advertised and let. Treat that as the way the wind is blowing rather than a precise rulebook: the point for you as a buyer is that “just stick it on Airbnb” is not a safe assumption any more.
Three things to check before you buy to let
If letting is part of the plan, these are the questions that decide whether the plan works — and all of them are answerable before you commit:
- Can this specific property get a tourist licence or registration at all? Not “can properties like it” — this one, at this address, under the current local position.
- Does the community of owners allow it? Many a comunidad de propietarios has voted to restrict or ban short-term letting in the building. If they have, it doesn’t matter what the town hall says — you can’t let it.
- What are the local, town-hall limits? Some areas cap the number of tourist lets, restrict new ones, or attach conditions. This varies place to place and changes, so it has to be checked for the actual location, not assumed from the region.
Check it can be let before you buy it.
Why the yield doesn’t matter until this is settled
Here’s the trap I most want you to avoid. A property gets sold as a “holiday-let investment,” complete with a glossy projection of what it’ll earn over the season. The numbers look wonderful. But a rental yield assumption is worth precisely nothing if the property can’t legally be let — and a projection printed on a brochure is not the same as a licence in your name.
So I do it the other way round. Before you commit, I verify the licence position with the town hall and the letting position with the comunidad — in writing where I can. If a place can be let, good, now the numbers mean something. If it can’t, far better to know that now than after you’ve handed over the deposit on an “investment” that turns out to be a home you can only use yourself.
None of this stops you buying. Plenty of properties can be let perfectly legally, and plenty of my clients let theirs happily. It just means we check first, so what you’re buying is what you think you’re buying. That’s the whole of my job on the buying side — making sure the reality matches the plan.
What if you already own one?
Some people come to me the other way around. They bought a place a few years ago with letting in mind, and the position has since changed — the community voted to restrict it, or the local rules tightened, and the letting income they were counting on has quietly become impractical. If that’s you, and the sums no longer add up the way they did, it can be a perfectly good reason to sell and put the money somewhere it works harder for you. No shame in it; circumstances change.
The straight version
Letting your place out is still very much possible on the Costa del Sol. It just isn’t automatic, and it isn’t the same everywhere — so it’s something to confirm, not assume. If you tell me letting is part of your plan, I’ll make checking it part of mine, from the first viewing rather than after the fact.
If you want to talk through whether a particular kind of property, or a particular area, will actually let, book a chat and we’ll be honest about it together.
General, dated guidance (2026); short-term-let rules vary by area and change — always verify the current local position and take advice.
What this relates to
