Every year, property owners in Costa del Sol contact us after their Airbnb listing has been removed, after receiving a letter from the Junta de Andalucía, or after neighbours have reported their unlicensed rental. The problems are always the same — and they are always preventable. This guide explains exactly what happens when you rent without a licence, and what you need to do to get legal.
What Actually Happens When You Rent Without a Licence
The consequences of operating an unlicensed holiday rental in Costa del Sol have become significantly more serious since 2023. Enforcement has increased at both the regional and national level, and platforms are now actively cooperating with authorities.
Your listing gets removed
Airbnb, Booking.com and VRBO are now legally required to verify VUT and NRUA licence numbers in Spain. Listings without valid, verifiable numbers are removed — sometimes without warning. Recovering a removed listing takes weeks and damages your review history and ranking on the platform. We see this happen to properties in Costa del Sol regularly.
You face substantial fines
Fines for unlicensed holiday rental in Andalusia: €2,000 – €18,000 for minor infractions, €18,001 – €150,000 for serious violations. Under Spain's national framework, the most serious cases reach €600,000. The property can be ordered to stop taking bookings immediately.
| Situation | Fine range | How inspectors find out |
|---|---|---|
| No VUT licence | €18,001–€150,000 | Platform reports, neighbour complaints, routine inspection |
| No NRUA number | €18,001–€150,000 | Platform compliance checks |
| Licence not displayed on listing | €2,000–€18,000 | Platform audit, inspection |
| Guests not registered with police | €18,001–€150,000 | Police check during inspection |
| Property fails physical standards | €2,000–€150,000 | On-site inspection after complaint |
Your community can block you permanently
Since April 2025 under Decree 31/2024, if your property is in a building with a community of owners, they can vote to prohibit tourist rentals by a 3/5 majority. If they do this while you are already operating without a licence, you may find yourself unable to obtain a licence at all. Getting licensed before this situation arises is strongly advisable for any apartment owner in Costa del Sol.
What You Need to Get Legal
The good news is that the VUT registration process itself is not complicated — it is a self-declaration, not a lengthy approval. Most properties in Costa del Sol that meet the physical requirements can be licensed in 2–5 working days.
Your property needs:
You also need:
Glaser Group Makes This Simple
We handle the full legal setup as part of our standard onboarding — VUT registration, NRUA registration, SES.Hospedajes setup and annual N2 reporting. You give us your documents and we take it from there.
If you are currently renting without a licence and want to get legal quickly, contact us today. We can assess your property's compliance, identify any gaps and begin the registration process immediately.
The Independent Street Access Rule — Why Thousands of Apartments Cannot Get Licensed
If you own an apartment in Malaga city or Fuengirola and have been trying to understand why your licence application was refused — or why your agent is telling you the property cannot be licenced — this is almost certainly the reason. Both municipalities now require that new VUT licences for apartments can only be granted where the property has direct access from the street, without passing through any shared internal space.
This rule was introduced as a direct response to housing campaigners and municipal politicians who argued that tourist rental was removing housing stock from the long-term market. By restricting new licences to properties with independent street access, both Ayuntamientos have effectively frozen the licensing of the vast majority of apartments in multi-storey residential buildings — while leaving existing licence holders unaffected.
Who is affected
You are affected by this rule if: your property is an apartment in Malaga city or Fuengirola, it is accessed via a shared lobby or stairwell, and you do not currently hold a VUT licence. Ground floor apartments with a private street door, standalone properties and those with their own separate entrance are not affected. Properties in all other Costa del Sol municipalities — Marbella, Benalmadena, Estepona, Mijas, Benahavis, Torremolinos — are not currently subject to this restriction at municipal level.
What to do if you are affected
The first step is to check whether a VUT licence already exists on the property. If a previous owner obtained a licence before the restriction, it may be registerable in your name — existing licences are not cancelled by the new municipal requirement. Glaser Group checks this as part of our initial property assessment, free of charge, before you commit to onboarding with us.
If no existing licence exists and your property does not have independent access, the honest answer is that you cannot obtain a new VUT licence in Malaga city or Fuengirola at present. We will tell you this upfront — there is no value in pursuing an application we know will fail.
The independent street access requirement is now a critical due diligence point for any property purchase in these municipalities. Buyers who purchase an apartment expecting to licence it for tourist rental and then discover it does not qualify face significant financial consequences. Always verify licence eligibility — and whether an existing licence transfers — before exchanging contracts. Glaser Group can advise on this as part of our pre-purchase assessment service.
The Community Vote Requirement — New Since April 2025
Even in municipalities without the street access restriction, there is a significant new hurdle for new licence applications: since April 2025, a formal vote of at least 3/5 of community owners must approve tourist rental activity before a VUT licence can be granted for any property in a building with shared areas.
This requirement catches many owners by surprise because they assume they have an automatic right to rent their own property. Under the current law, that right is conditional on the community agreeing. If the community votes against — or if the community statutes already prohibit tourist rental — no licence can be granted, regardless of how good the property is or how compliant the owner intends to be.
The practical implication: before starting a VUT application for any apartment, check two things. First, do the community statutes contain any restriction on tourist rental? Second, do you have the relationships and standing in the community to get a 3/5 majority vote in your favour? If either answer is uncertain, address it before starting the application process.
Getting Legal — The Complete Checklist for Costa del Sol
Here is the full sequence to go from unlicensed to fully compliant in Costa del Sol:
