Malaga Halts Licenses
- Malaga has suspended new holiday apartment licenses across 43 neighborhoods to curb short‑term rental growth. (travelandtourworld.com) - The moratorium aims to protect local housing stock and reduce pressure on overrun tourist areas. (travelandtourworld.com) - Travelers may face fewer new private rentals there, shifting demand toward regulated hotels or alternate Andalusian towns. (travelandtourworld.com)
Málaga has stopped registering new tourist apartments in 43 neighborhoods, turning a proposed crackdown into a rule now in force. (malaga.eu) The restriction took effect on January 14, 2025, after Málaga’s city government published an initial amendment to its urban plan in the provincial gazette on January 13. The city said the ban applies in neighborhoods where tourist rentals already exceed 8% of the housing stock. (malaga.eu) City Hall divided Málaga into 417 neighborhoods for the plan. Of those, 43 face a full stop on new registrations, 32 can add rentals only until they hit the same 8% ceiling, and 46 are not classified as residential. (malaga.eu) In the rest of the city, new tourist apartments are still possible, but only if they have their own entrance and independent utility services rather than sharing common access with residents. Málaga first imposed that separate-access rule in June 2024, and it remains in place. (infobae.com) The city tied the policy to housing pressure, not tourism alone. Its statement says the zoning change is based on a study that linked heavy tourist-apartment concentrations to a loss of residential housing stock in affected areas. (malaga.eu) That puts Málaga inside a wider Spanish fight over rents, long-term supply, and short-term platforms. Reuters reported in October 2024 that the city was acting after residents said booming tourism was pricing them out of the property market, while Barcelona was also moving to phase out tourist-rental licenses by 2028. (hotel-online.com) The Andalusian regional government gave municipalities more room to act before Málaga moved. Andalusia’s tourism department says Decree 31/2024 changed the rules for tourist-use housing, and Málaga’s own notice says that decree lets city governments set limits for reasons of general interest. (juntadeandalucia.es, malaga.eu) The 43 neighborhoods include the Centro Histórico, La Malagueta, El Ejido, La Merced, Capuchinos, Guadalmar, and Martiricos. Málaga Hoy reported that the city had more than 12,000 holiday flats at the time and had asked Andalusia to remove more than 1,500 tourist-home registrations in the city. (malagahoy.es) For travelers, the immediate change is on future supply, not existing stays. Registered tourist apartments already operating can keep running under current rules, but the pipeline for new listings is now closed in the most saturated parts of Málaga. (malaga.eu) The city says it will review the maximum number of tourist apartments allowed in each neighborhood one year after the rule took effect, and after that at intervals of no more than four years. For now, the message from Málaga is that housing pressure has become a planning issue, not just a tourism one. (infobae.com)
