Europe, the Spanish State and Andalusia all regulate your holiday apartment at once. Here is how it fits together — and what has changed.
Short-term tourist letting has become one of the most popular investment decisions on the Costa del Sol — and one of the most heavily regulated. Three layers of rules now apply at the same time: European, national and regional. You should understand all three before putting an apartment on the market.
How it used to be: for years, regulation rested almost entirely with the autonomous regions. In Andalusia, Decree 28/2016 created the figure of the Tourist-Purpose Dwelling (VFT), registered through a simple responsible declaration before the Andalusian Tourism Registry. It was a relatively quick, decentralised framework.
What has changed: since 2024 the picture has tightened. The European Union adopted Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 on short-term rental data; the State reformed the Horizontal Property Law (Organic Law 1/2025) and created — only to see it struck down by the Supreme Court — a Single Rental Registry; and Andalusia updated its rules with Decree 31/2024, renaming VFTs as Tourist-Use Dwellings (VUT).
Why it matters: these levels do not replace one another — they add up. An owner in Marbella must comply at once with EU data rules, with national rules on owners' communities, and with regional and municipal requirements. A breach of any one of them can mean penalties or the removal of your listing.
At R M Legal Services we review your specific case — location, owners' community and registry status — and tell you exactly which steps to take to let your property with full legal certainty.
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