New rental rules in Spain

[Margaret-Mary0]

Does anyone who hosts in Spain have any idea how the new "rental laws" affect Airbnb listings?  

To my understanding, if I rent out my house in Spain I have to jump through a load of hoops, such as obtaining a rental number from the local town hall, having air conditioning and heating fitted and reporting all guests to the local police station within 12 hours of their arrival!

Is Airbnb caught up in these new laws or is it outwith?  

Any comments or suggestions with this would be gratefully received.

Thanks.

[Hector173]

Yes, I feel the same way. My wife is from Valencia (we live in the SF Bay Area). In 2001 we bought an apartment in Valencia because as our family grew, my in-laws apartment remained the same and we needed space when we visit. We started renting the apartment out in 2002 to tourists. At first we had very little competition and the apartment was always fully booked and we made some great money, but as the online vacation rental websites started filling up, we got less clients (but summer always fully booked). The request for rental license that Airbnb sent out last month caused me to remove my advert. Now our apartment is back to what we initially bought it for, for us and friends to enjoy thruout the year. Renting it out now and keeping a listing on Airbnb leads me to believe that I will be fined or taxed excessively. Even if I register it. Next time I'm in Valencia I plan to speak with the local authorities there to see what I can expect in taxes.  At that point I will decide what to do.

[Khadija14]

The new laws have been challenged in Tenerife and recently some of the rules have been overturned 

[Hamoud1]

Hello Khadija, I am especially interested in the rules that apply in tenerife. Can you tell me a bit.

thank you.

[Yousra4]

Hi Khadija, does your comment only apply for Tenerife or for all of Spain?

[Martin333]

Hi

do not get dishearted by various discussions about the latest regulations. You can rent houses, apartments and even offer shared accommodation.

The major exceptions to this are Europewide e.g. areas of high density of tourist accommodation offers (Barcelona Paris Berlin ....) can and will restrict new applications for rental in certain areas where it is deemed that an already scarce housing situation is amplified by usage of such for turists. Second here in Spain one has to read carfully the owners papers of multi apartment housing as some housing comunities do not allow usage for tourism, but this is clearly stated in the deeds that this property has restrictions.

The main issue is that this normativa is regulated on a regional level. E.G. Galicia where I sit has slightly different rules than for example Aragon.

The next issue is that one needs an "Informaion of intend to establish a business for the use of tourism" in form of the rental of a complete house, apartment or shared room - hand over keys no hotel services. This is an informal letter to the local council. They than have 20 days to answer. Some councils are organised and have some paperwork but the usual is "escritura / deeds" location and very important third party liability insurance of more than 300k €.

This can no longer stop you as it is in parallel with informing the local / regional tourist office and ask for the required paperwork. This is normally in form of a declaration of responsibility / intend "declaracion de responsibilidad" than one has to pay some on off taxes have the third party insurance, escritura / deeds maybe a copy of the NIE and a reasonable plan (outline) as well as a good description with acurate measurements.

The regional requirements vary from - yes - how big the beds have to be - to the bathrooms per pax and that an iron needs to be provided etc. just check locally.

A resource to explain as well is here https://cincodias.elpais.com/cincodias/2017/08/01/ahorros/1501569615_038303.html

Be absolutely clear that you rent out entirely for the whole year or part of the year and just hand over the keys - There is as of yet no VAT and no further business taxes nor is there a requirement to be self employed - any more will get you into the focus of VAT and hotel services, than you may be required to become selfemployed as well. If you are resident you have to declare any income  from this above 1k € with your normal tax declaration - deductions apply as usual.

Whilst this process is on going and it can take a long time for an inspector to show up you can run this on a temp basis.

Please note I'm not a layer or taxman and can only speak with certanty for Galicia but I''m just registering my second house here and I dont take no for an answer.

You should know that your local council office (Ayuntamiento / Concello) is the registered post office for all paperwork.

They have to register any letter / paperwok to any government office including themselves, than send it to the apropriate office. They may charge a nominal fee for copies. This registration is very very important.

Hope it helps and do not take no for an answer here in Spain.

Martin GJ

[Christian-and-Rogério0]

 I'm really confused...I'm looking to let a room in my flat (residential block) through Airbnb over the summer, as a tourist holiday let. I understand that I must register for a licence but I'm concerned that I will have to pay out initial expenese for a new insurance (home/tenant), to pay for a licence and then any taxes on earnings. I don't expect to earn very much from a 30 euro a night room and I'm wondering if it's really worth my while? if my room is only let out for a few weeks out of the year am I actually going to make ANY money? I don't want to advertise the room until I have followed all legal requirements... I have heard of people in my region (Costa Maresme/Catalunya) being hit with BIG fines for not abiding by 'The Law'!

[Natasha-Lee0]

My Advice is sell it and buy in a better location, country, what a lot of rules and regulations. There is no point unless you can earn a really good amount. Who says what type of bed you can have and you must have this and that etc. Too big brother and too communist for our liking! My boss sold his apartment because of this as he was harrassed by neighbours for renting, the guests were harrassed by locals, he was then threatened that they would report him and a huge fine would be imposed. Location Palma. My advice do not rent out at all to tourists not at the moment.

[Ged0]

Hi Natasha, as someone has stated above, what you are saying ONLY applies to certain parts of Spain, particularly the Balearics and Catalonia. Here in Andalucia we are renting the two apartments attached to our house completely legally. The registration process was somewhat bureaucratic but basically straightforward. The only requirements we have are to install aircon (and believe me, I'd want that if I was a tourist here in the Summer months!) and various safety features like having a first-aid kit, host contact numbers etc. which are sensible. The most annoying part is the necessity to take all guest details (passport numbers etc) and file them with the local Police. This can be done online however and is not too bad once you get used to it!

Yes, there are sometimes problems with neighbours (we haven't experienced any) but this is happening everywhere that Airbnb has exploded ... coming from South Africa, you will probably know that many Body Corporates in cape Town, for example, completely now ban short-term rentals.

p.s. we love Greyton, how lucky you are to live in such a lovely spot!

[Greyton-Bookings0]

Hi there!

Wow you have been to Greyton!??? It is a tiny village in the middle of nowhere! Yes sadly my boss owned 3 apartments in Palma and had issues with all 3. In Palma you are no longer allowed to rent short term. Long term only.

[Arvin5]

Hi Ged! Thanks for the info. I just want to ask a small favor on how the registration process here in Andalucia. Here's my situation the whole apartment is actually 3 floors that belongs to my mother in law. We live at the 3rd floor and we're living there for free and the rest are being rented by contract since we are not working we decided to put our apartment to Airbnb. My wife told me that she made a contract with her mother for formality to get an electricity and water. Now i believe that her mother does the payment of taxes then do we still have to declare what we earn or register our apartment in tourism office? i would be grateful if you could please provide me some ideas.. thanks

[Yousra4]

Hi Ged,

Can i come in contact with you i have some questions about The registration at the Police...

[Rosina17]

Hi Ged, I’m New here; my husband and I bought an appartment in Malaga and if we are not there for vacation, we want to rent it out. We allready have the tourist permit, but I’m struggeling finding where I can get an username and password for the online registration. Can you perhaps  provide me with more information? At this moment we are not in Spain, so hopefully we can do this application for an username online. First guests are arriving in 10 days 😬.

thank you!

[Rosina17]

I’m talking about the online registration of the guest at the police by the way 😃

[Rachel681]

Hi Ged, Would you mind giving a few details of how you went about registering with the local police online? I´m having a few problems finding the right place to register.

Thanks in advance,

Rachel.

[Robert1025]

If it were communist, there wouldn't be landowners in the 1st place. In fact, issuing licenses, which would benefit government, as you suggested, would hardly be a right-wing concept, would it? In a country where you are forced to pay overpriced electricity bills because its leaders heavily invested in that industry, you can hardly call Spain 'leaning left'. Is it perfect? No, no place is. It would solve plenty of headaches if one first looks up the proper information BEFORE decide to invest then whinge about the problems later. Sorry, you keep repeating the same 'communist' nonsense and I really couldn't help myself. You keep talking about going to another country. Nobody is stopping you. It might not be a free world but many choices we make are. Go for it. But coming from South Africa, with all the issues there are (and were), fancy that!