Your Malaga Host
The province of Malaga ended May 2026 with 45,176 registered holiday lets — the highest figure in Spain, ahead of Alicante (32,148), the Balearics (24,789) and Madrid (15,540), according to INE.
And since August 2025 the city has stopped issuing new licences.
Those two sentences together explain the Malaga short-term rental market better than any long analysis: there is more supply here than anywhere else in the country, and at the same time the door has closed.
If you already own a licensed property here, that affects you directly. Here are the numbers.
According to INE, in May 2026 the province of Malaga had 45,176 registered holiday lets. It is first in Spain, and not by a small margin.
| Province | Holiday lets (INE, May 2026) |
|---|---|
| Malaga | 45,176 |
| Alicante | 32,148 |
| Balearics | 24,789 |
| Madrid | 15,540 |
To give a sense of the concentration: the city itself holds roughly 12,141 tourist apartments and around 42,412 bed spaces.
The figure matters less than what it implies. You are competing against a lot of supply, which means the gap between a well-run property and a mediocre one shows up far more sharply here than in a small market.
Average occupancy per apartment across the province sits at 67.9%, rising to 73.5% at weekends.
In the city, July 2026 closed at 83% occupancy, five points above the same month in 2025. The average nightly rate held steady at around €189.
That detail is worth pausing on: occupancy rose and the rate did not fall. In a market with 45,000 properties competing, that suggests demand is absorbing supply, at least in high season.
What those averages hide is the spread. A property with professional photography, daily rate review and instant replies can sit twenty points above that average. A neglected one sits well below.
Nobody actually experiences the average.
This is the structural change in the market and it is worth understanding properly.
In February 2025, Malaga city council voted to suspend new tourist-use dwellings in 43 neighbourhoods declared saturated — those where holiday lets exceeded 8% of the residential housing stock.
They include the Historic Centre, Ensanche Centro, La Victoria, La Malagueta and beach areas such as El Palo.
From August 2025 the suspension was extended, through a modification of the city’s urban plan, to effectively the entire municipality, with a horizon of up to three years — around 2028.
In practice, registering a new VFT licence in Malaga city is currently not possible as a general rule. Properties licensed before the freeze can continue operating normally.
Your asset has become scarce.
While the freeze holds, the number of legal holiday lets in the city is frozen. No new supply enters, while demand keeps growing — July occupancy rose five points year on year.
That has two practical consequences.
First, the licence now forms part of the property’s value, not just the business: a flat with a VFT in a saturated neighbourhood is worth more today than the identical flat without one, because the second can no longer obtain it.
Second, losing it through an administrative slip costs far more than it used to. If you deregister or fall out of compliance, getting it back is not a matter of reapplying — it simply cannot be done while the suspension lasts.
Keep your tourist licence and your NRUA registration current.
In Malaga city the route is closed for now. But the province is much more than the city.
The freeze is municipal, not regional.
Costa del Sol towns such as Marbella, Estepona, Fuengirola, Benalmádena, Mijas and Nerja each have their own planning position, and in several it remains possible to register a property for tourist use.
The underlying legal framework is the same across Andalucía: Decree 28/2016, requiring registration with the Andalusian Tourism Registry and a VFT code that must appear in all listing advertising.
Before buying with letting in mind, check three things in this order: the planning position of the specific municipality, whether the building sits in a restricted neighbourhood, and whether the community of owners has banned tourist letting.
Any of the three can sink the purchase. Our buy-to-let guide for the Costa del Sol covers the rest.
Three practical readings.
If your occupancy is below 68%, you have room. That is the provincial average. Sitting below it with a well-located property usually points to mispricing, weak photography or slow response times — not to a lack of demand.
If you bill well but at the cost of your own time, put a number on that time. We work it through in self-managing your Airbnb vs hiring a management company.
And if you are weighing up delegating, do it knowing what to ask. In a market with 45,000 properties competing, the gap between a good management company and a bad one is amplified.
The checklist is in how to choose a holiday let management company.
45,176 as of May 2026, according to INE. It is the province with the most in Spain, ahead of Alicante (32,148), the Balearics (24,789) and Madrid (15,540).
As a general rule, no. Since August 2025 the council has suspended new licences across effectively the whole municipality, with a horizon of up to three years. Properties licensed before the freeze can continue operating.
No. It is a municipal decision by Malaga city. Each town in the province has its own planning position, and in several it is still possible to register a property for tourist use.
Around 67.9% per apartment across the province, rising to 73.5% at weekends. In the city, July 2026 closed at 83% with an average rate of around €189 a night.
Your Malaga Host
