Airbnb rules in Málaga 2026: the moratorium, the 8% barrio cap and what still works

In Málaga city you cannot register a new tourist home in 2026. Since 23 August 2025 the council has suspended new viviendas de uso turístico (VUT) across the whole municipality, for up to three years or until a new urban plan change is approved.¹ Before that it had already capped tourist homes at 8% of the housing in each barrio and required an independent entrance and services for new ones.² Homes already in the Registro de Turismo de Andalucía can still be let, under the regional and national rules covered in our guide to Andalusia and Marbella.⁵

In this guide

1. Who decides what in Málaga
2. Four steps since 2024
3. The independent access rule
4. The 8% barrio cap
5. The three-year suspension
6. Hotels and tourist apartments on residential land
7. The building and the community of owners
8. Tourist tax
9. Worked example
10. Before you take on a unit in Málaga city
11. Questions people ask
12. Sources

Who decides what in Málaga

Three layers of rules apply to a holiday let in Málaga city, and this guide covers the municipal one.

• The state sets the rules for communities of owners and non-resident tax. The national single registration number lost its legal basis in May 2026; see our Marbella guide.
• The Junta de Andalucía runs the Registro de Turismo de Andalucía (RTA) and sets the standards in Decreto 28/2016 as amended by Decreto 31/2024.⁶ Our Marbella guide covers registration and the requirements.
• The Ayuntamiento de Málaga decides, through its urban plan (the PGOU of 2011), where tourist use is compatible with housing. This is where Málaga has moved furthest.

The council’s power comes from the regional rules. Decreto 31/2024 lets councils limit the number of tourist homes per building, sector, area, zone or period, on proportionate grounds of overriding public interest.⁶ Decreto-ley 1/2025 went further: where a council declares and justifies overriding reasons, residential use of a plot no longer allows tourist use by itself, and while the plan is being changed the council may suspend new VUT licences and declarations for the whole municipality for up to three years.⁴ Málaga has used both. The EU layer adds data rules but no licence; see EU short-term rental regulation 2024/1028.

Four steps since 2024

The council describes its approach as a roadmap in phases.¹ All four steps are still in force as far as we could find.

The Gerencia Municipal de Urbanismo, the council’s planning department, lists both plan changes as in progress on its planning notices page.³

The independent access rule

The first step was a municipal instruction in June 2024. In the council’s words, a home that wants to enter the RTA must have its own means of access and evacuation, independent of the rest of the building, and its own general installations, such as electricity, water and telephone, entirely separate from the building’s.²

On our reading, that rules out most flats in a block with a shared staircase and lobby. The council said in January 2025 that the instruction stays in force alongside the barrio cap.² The TSJA, Andalusia’s High Court, also rejected an owner’s indirect challenge to the instruction and to article 6.4.2 of the PGOU, according to El Español.⁹

The 8% barrio cap

The second step zoned the city. On 13 January 2025 the council published the initial approval of a new additional provision in the PGOU, based on a study of tourist homes by the consultancy Espacio Común Coop, and it applied from the next day.²

The rule sets a maximum number of tourist homes in each barrio: 8% of the family homes available there, calculated from residential properties in the Cadastre and rounded to the nearest whole number. Where a barrio has reached or passed that maximum, no new authorisations can be given. Where it has not, new ones can be given until the maximum is reached.² The council will review the maximum after one year and then at least every four years.²

Zone 1 includes the Centro Histórico, La Merced, Ensanche Centro, La Malagueta, Perchel Norte and Pedregalejo Playa. Zone 2 includes La Caleta, El Palo, Pedregalejo and Huelin. The full list per zone is in the council’s press release.²

The Pleno, the full council, approved the provision definitively on 29 May 2025, and the Boletín Oficial de la Provincia published it on 6 August 2025, according to the law firm Montero Aramburu & GVA.⁸ By then the council said data from inAtlas, a firm it hired, showed 53 barrios above 8% by July 2025, and 29 more close to it.¹ We did not find a published update of the zone lists, so do not assume a barrio is still in zone 2 or 3 because it was in January 2025.

The court challenge

El Español reported in April 2026 that the TSJA, sitting in Málaga, dismissed in full an appeal by the owner of a tourist flat in calle San Andrés against the definitive approval, in a ruling dated 18 February 2026.⁹ The paper did not say whether the ruling is final, and we could not check the ruling itself.

The three-year suspension

The third step closed the city. On 14 August 2025 the Junta de Gobierno Local, the council’s executive, started a broader change to the PGOU on tourist and residential uses. The agreement was published in the BOP on 22 August 2025, and the suspension took effect on Saturday 23 August 2025.¹

What it does, in the council’s own terms:¹

• it declares that overriding reasons of general interest exist, so that residential use of a home does not by itself allow it to be used as tourist accommodation;
• it suspends new VUT licences and declaraciones responsables across the whole municipality;
• it lasts for a maximum of three years, or until the plan change is approved if that comes first;
• it applies only to VUT, not to other kinds of tourist accommodation such as hotels, which the council kept out of this measure on grounds of proportionality.

The council also told the Junta de Andalucía and asked it to stop prior registration of new VUT in the RTA, which would otherwise be automatic, for the same period.¹ Decreto-ley 1/2025 requires such suspensions to be notified to the regional tourism department for the purposes of the register.⁴

Three years from 23 August 2025 points to August 2028 at the latest; that is our reading, not a date the council has published. It ends earlier if the new plan rules are approved, and we found no draft of them on the planning pages.³

What the suspension does not say

The measures refer to new tourist homes.¹ We found no official Málaga text on what happens to an existing registration when the home is sold, the operator changes or the owner deregisters. The Junta’s FAQ explains how a change of operator is filed, but not how it meets a municipal suspension.⁵ Until Urbanismo or the RTA answers in writing, do not assume a registration survives any of those events.

Hotels and tourist apartments on residential land

The fourth step reaches beyond private homes. Plan change no. 28 aims, in the planning department’s words, to limit hospedaje (lodging) as an alternative to residential use and to regulate converting ground-floor premises into homes.³ El Español reported that the Pleno gave it initial approval on 16 July 2026, that it was published in the BOP on Friday 24 July, and that the suspension it brings took effect on Saturday 25 July 2026.¹⁰¹¹

As reported, the change does the following:

• Lodging uses, including hotels, hostels, tourist apartments and pensions, stop being automatically compatible with residential use in the city’s residential ordinances, from the Ciudad Histórica to detached houses.¹⁰¹¹
• A project that wants tourist accommodation on residential land needs a specific planning change that justifies it.¹⁰¹¹
• Licences and declarations that do not fit the new rules are suspended for up to three years, or until definitive approval.¹⁰
• Applications filed before publication with all the substantial documents required can continue.¹⁰
• Converting commercial premises into homes is no longer allowed on first and second order streets or where the premises face a square, and new conditions apply to light, ventilation and depth.¹⁰¹¹

That narrows the former-shop route to the independent access rule. We read newspaper reports, not the plan text in the BOP, so check the wording with Urbanismo for any specific street.

The building and the community of owners

Since 3 April 2025 an owner in a building with a community of owners needs the community’s express approval before starting a tourist let, and an agreement to approve, limit, condition or prohibit tourist lets needs three fifths of all owners.⁷ Owners already letting under the tourism rules before that date may continue.⁷ The RTA asks for a certificate from the community’s secretary or administrator approving tourist use when a home is registered.⁵ More in our Marbella guide.

Tourist tax

There is no tourist tax in Málaga. Moncloa.com reported on 31 October 2026 that Málaga and Seville still have none, that Málaga’s council wants legal tools to charge one on overnight stays, and that it estimates such a tax would raise about €30 million a year.¹² The Junta’s tourism minister, Manuel Gavira, says the power lies with the state through the law on local finances, and that the Junta cannot create the tax on its own.¹² Check before each season. Non-resident income tax is covered in our Marbella guide.

Worked example

Before you take on a unit in Málaga city

1. RTA code. Is the home in the RTA, with a VUT or older VFT code, and is that code in every advert?⁵
2. Barrio. Which barrio is it in, and was that barrio in zone 1, 2 or 3? The zone lists date from January 2025.²
3. Operator. If you will handle guests, keys and cleaning, you must be listed as the operator. Ask in writing how a change of operator is treated during the suspension.⁵
4. Community. Is there a certificate approving tourist use, and did letting start before 3 April 2025?⁷
5. Ground floor or former shop. Was the home converted from commercial premises, and on which street? Plan change no. 28 restricts new conversions.¹⁰
6. Contract. Put who carries the risk of a lost registration, and who pays a fine, in your management agreement.

Questions people ask

Sources

All sources checked 6 November 2026.

1. Ayuntamiento de Málaga, “Mañana entra en vigor la suspensión, por un máximo de tres años, de nuevas viviendas de uso turístico en Málaga”, Council press release, 22 August 2025, in Spanish
2. Ayuntamiento de Málaga, “Mañana entra en vigor la prohibición de inscribir nuevas viviendas turísticas en 43 barrios de la ciudad”, Council press release, 13 January 2025, with the list of barrios per zone, in Spanish
3. Gerencia Municipal de Urbanismo de Málaga, “Anuncios de planeamiento: modificación de elementos”, Planning notices, both changes listed as in progress, in Spanish
4. Boletín Oficial de la Junta de Andalucía, “Decreto-ley 1/2025, de 24 de febrero, de medidas urgentes en materia de vivienda”, BOJA no. 41, 3 March 2025, article 6, in Spanish
5. Junta de Andalucía, “Viviendas de uso turístico. Preguntas frecuentes”, Registro de Turismo de Andalucía, in Spanish
6. Boletín Oficial de la Junta de Andalucía, “Decreto 31/2024, de 29 de enero, por el que se modifican diversas disposiciones en materia de viviendas de uso turístico, establecimientos de apartamentos turísticos y hoteleros”, BOJA no. 24, 2 February 2024, in Spanish
7. Boletín Oficial del Estado, “Ley 49/1960, de 21 de julio, sobre propiedad horizontal (texto consolidado)”, Articles 7.3 and 17.12, in Spanish
8. Montero Aramburu & GVA, “Entra en vigor la modificación del PGOU de Málaga que limita el número máximo permitido de viviendas de uso turístico”, Law firm, 8 August 2025, in Spanish
9. El Español, “Golpe judicial a los pisos turísticos: el TSJA avala la estrategia de Málaga para limitar su expansión”, Newspaper, 10 April 2026, in Spanish
10. El Español, “Málaga da el paso definitivo para vetar apartamentos turísticos y hoteles en suelo residencial durante tres años”, Newspaper, 16 July 2026, in Spanish
11. El Español, “Málaga activa desde este sábado el veto a nuevos hoteles y apartamentos turísticos en suelos residenciales”, Newspaper, 24 July 2026, in Spanish
12. Moncloa.com, “La Junta mantiene su rechazo a la tasa turística pese a la insistencia de Sevilla y Málaga”, Independent news site, not the Spanish government, 31 October 2026, in Spanish

We check every figure against the sources above. Spotted something out of date? Email systemen@hostproacademy.com with the guide title.