Your Malaga Host
If you want to rent your property to tourists in Malaga or anywhere on the Costa del Sol, you can’t just list it on Airbnb and start taking bookings.
Andalusia requires every short-term rental to be legally registered, and getting the tourist licence Andalucia requires — the registration that makes your holiday home legal — is the first step.
This guide explains what the licence actually is, the requirements your property must meet, how to register step by step, what it costs, and the fines for getting it wrong.
In Andalusia, a holiday home rented to tourists is a vivienda con fines turísticos (VFT), regulated by Decree 28/2016 and updated by Decree 31/2024.
Strictly speaking there is no “licence” you buy — instead you submit a responsible declaration (declaración responsable) to the Andalusian Tourism Registry (RTA), which issues you a registration number.
Since 2025 this connects to the new national single registration number (NRUA) through the EU single digital window.
That registration number is what people loosely call your “tourist licence”, and you must display it in every advert. Renting without it is illegal and fineable.
Yes. If you rent an entire home (or rooms) to tourists for short stays, advertise it on platforms, and offer it for tourism, it falls under the VFT rules and must be registered.
There are some exceptions — for example, rentals of more than two months to the same tenant fall under urban leasing law instead — but the moment you market short tourist stays on Airbnb, Booking or Vrbo, you need to be registered.
The platforms themselves now require a valid registration number to keep your listing live.
Before you register, your property must meet minimum standards. Typically these include:
Requirements evolve, so confirm the current Decree before you apply.
To make the registration smooth, gather these in advance: the property’s cadastral reference, your occupancy licence or equivalent, your ID or NIE, proof you are entitled to register the property (ownership or authorisation), and the maximum occupancy you intend to declare.
Having an exact address and cadastral reference ready prevents the most common delays, because a mistake here means the registry can’t match your property.
The process is a responsible declaration, which means you can usually start operating from the day you submit it correctly:
We cover the single number in detail in our NRUA registration guide.
From 2025, Spain rolled out a single registration number (NRUA) to unify regional registries and satisfy the EU short-term rental regulation.
In practice you still register your VFT in Andalusia, but the property is also tied to this national number, which the booking platforms verify.
If you already had a VFT, you generally keep operating while the single number is processed — but you must not ignore it, because platforms are removing listings without a valid number.
Treat the NRUA as the new must-have on top of your Andalusian registration.
Because it’s a responsible declaration, registration itself is low-cost — there’s a small administrative fee, generally modest — and you can usually advertise from submission.
The real “cost” is meeting the property requirements (air conditioning, safety items) and getting the paperwork right.
Budget more time than money: a clean application with the correct cadastral data and occupancy licence goes through quickly, while a missing document can stall it for weeks.
Your VFT/registration number is not optional decoration — it must appear in all advertising, including your Airbnb, Booking and Vrbo listings and your own website.
Platforms now have dedicated fields for it and will hide or remove non-compliant listings.
Displaying it also reassures guests that they’re booking a legal, registered property, which increasingly matters to travellers wary of last-minute cancellations from illegal lets.
Registration comes with ongoing obligations.
The main one is guest registration: you must collect each guest’s ID details and report them to the authorities (the Guardia Civil or Policía travellers’ register) within the legal timeframe.
You also have to keep the property to the declared standard, respect the maximum occupancy, and hand over the complaint forms on request.
These duties are exactly where a professional manager earns their keep, because the admin is relentless and the penalties for slipping are real.
The frequent traps are: declaring an occupancy the property can’t legally support, missing the occupancy licence, advertising before the number is issued, forgetting to display the number, and skipping the traveller registration.
Another growing issue is the community of owners: some buildings have restricted or banned tourist rentals in their statutes, and registering anyway can land you in a dispute.
Check your community rules before you invest in the setup.
Operating an unregistered tourist rental in Andalusia is a tourism infraction and can carry significant fines, scaling with severity and repetition.
Beyond the fine, you risk having your listings removed by the platforms and losing bookings overnight.
The economics are simple: the cost and effort of registering correctly are tiny next to the risk of a penalty plus lost income, so legalising your property first is always the cheaper path.
The rules tightened noticeably with Decree 31/2024 and the EU short-term rental regulation. Three changes matter most for owners.
First, the single registration number (NRUA) now sits on top of your Andalusian VFT and is verified by the platforms, so an old VFT alone is no longer enough to stay listed.
Second, community of owners’ consent has become decisive: communities can limit or block new tourist rentals, and buyers in particular should check the statutes before purchasing with rental income in mind.
Third, enforcement is real — town halls and the regional government are actively cross-checking listings against the registry, and Airbnb and Booking now remove properties without a valid number.
The practical takeaway is that legality is no longer a one-off form you file and forget.
It’s an ongoing status you have to maintain: keep your number valid, keep the property compliant, and keep your traveller reporting up to date.
Owners who treat registration as a living obligation avoid nasty surprises; those who set it once and ignore it are the ones losing listings and facing inspections.
A Costa del Sol management company that operates from Marbella across the province of Malaga will typically guide you through the VFT declaration and NRUA, make sure the property meets the requirements, set up the traveller-registration process, and keep everything displayed and compliant.
For an overseas owner especially, this removes the single biggest source of risk — getting the legal side wrong — and lets you rent with peace of mind.
The value isn’t just convenience: a property that is correctly registered, clearly displaying its number and reporting guests on time, is one that platforms keep visible, inspectors leave alone and guests trust enough to book.
In a market as scrutinised as the Costa del Sol, that compliance is quietly one of the best returns on your time you can buy. This article is general information, not legal advice; always confirm the current regulation or consult a professional.
To go further, our guides on renting out your property in Spain and non-resident rental tax are worth a read too.
Yes. You must register your property as a VFT with the Andalusian Tourism Registry and obtain a registration number (and the national NRUA), then display it in your listings. Renting without it is illegal.
The registration is a responsible declaration with only a small administrative fee. The bigger cost is meeting the property requirements, such as air conditioning and safety items.
The registry won’t ask your community, but your building’s statutes can restrict or ban tourist rentals. Check your community rules first, because operating against them can lead to legal disputes.
Your Malaga Host
