Tourist accommodation requires two legal questions to be kept separate: the administrative authorisation to carry on the activity and the legal position of the property within the condominium. Compliance with tourism rules does not, by itself, resolve every condominium issue.
A tourism authorisation does not replace the condominium analysis
The first check is administrative: planning rules, the applicable tourism authorisation or responsible declaration, and any registration requirements. The second is civil and condominium law: the constitutive title, statutes, owners’ resolutions and the Spanish Horizontal Property Act.
The Supreme Court has treated certain statutory restrictions as relevant to tourist use. In judgment 1643/2023, for example, it upheld the cessation of a tourist activity where the applicable statutes prohibited business or commercial activities and reserved the homes for residential use.
What to check in the statutes
It is not enough to search for the words “tourist rental”. The complete wording of the statutes and constitutive title should be reviewed: residential-use clauses, prohibitions on professional or commercial activities, hospitality restrictions and any rules governing permitted uses.
It is also important to check whether the clause is registered, how it was adopted and whether there is relevant case law interpreting similar wording. Restrictions on ownership rights depend on the actual wording and circumstances.
What changed from 3 April 2025
The Horizontal Property Act was amended to introduce a specific regime for certain tourist accommodation activities in buildings under condominium ownership. Article 7.3 requires express owners’ approval, in the statutory cases, under the terms of article 17.12. Decisions published by the Directorate-General for Legal Certainty in 2026 have applied this regime when dealing with tourist-registration applications.
Article 17.12 provides for a three-fifths majority for the relevant tourist-activity resolutions. Where the statutes already contain a prohibition, however, the issue may be different: amending the prohibition may be required rather than obtaining a simple one-off authorisation.
Why the start date matters
Transitional rules are particularly important. The Directorate-General has reiterated in 2026 that it is necessary to establish whether the tourist activity was already being carried out and was covered by the applicable sectoral rules before the new regime entered into force. The chronology should therefore be documented: tourism licence or declaration, registration, condominium statutes and owners’ resolutions.
Conclusion
A tourist rental should be analysed on several levels. A tourism licence, responsible declaration or registration does not replace a review of the condominium statutes and resolutions. Conversely, a condominium issue does not remove the need to comply with planning and tourism rules.
Before starting, buying or continuing an activity, both legal layers should be reviewed together and the property's specific chronology documented.