Tourist Apartments in Your HOA: 2026 Legal Guide

Tourist apartments have become one of the most controversial topics in Spanish homeowners associations. Noise at odd hours, constant turnover of tenants, and accelerated wear and tear on common areas are just some of the problems they generate. The good news is that Ley Organica 1/2025 (Organic Law 1/2025) has reformed the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal (LPH — Spain’s Horizontal Property Act) to give communities a real tool: it is now possible to prohibit or restrict short-term tourist rental activity with a three-fifths majority of property owners. In this guide we explain step by step how the new regulation works, what procedure your community must follow, and what precautions to take to ensure the agreement is legally valid.

What the new Organic Law 1/2025 says about tourist apartments

Background: why the LPH was reformed

For years, homeowners associations found themselves trapped in a legal vacuum. The original Horizontal Property Act did not contemplate the concept of tourist-use housing as we know it today — driven by platforms such as Airbnb or Booking — and courts interpreted inconsistently whether a simple majority was sufficient or whether unanimity was required to restrict this activity.

The situation became especially tense after the 2021 Spanish Supreme Court ruling, which required unanimity to ban tourist apartments when the community’s bylaws did not expressly address the issue. In practice, that unanimity was nearly impossible to achieve: it was enough for a single owner — often the one already operating a tourist apartment — to refuse, thereby blocking any resolution.

Organic Law 1/2025 has come to resolve this contradiction definitively. By reforming Article 17 of the Horizontal Property Act, the legislator opted for a middle-ground solution: neither unanimity nor a simple majority, but a qualified majority of three-fifths — more attainable, yet still requiring genuine consensus within the community.

The three keys of the reform

The reform introduces specific changes that are worth understanding well before calling any meeting:

First key: the three-fifths majority. The new Article 17.12 LPH establishes that the community can limit or condition the exercise of tourist-use housing activity, or ban it outright, through a resolution adopted by three-fifths of all property owners who, in turn, represent three-fifths of the participation shares. This means the double quorum rule — owners and shares — applies simultaneously.

Second key: the prior authorization regime. In addition to a total ban, the regulation allows communities to require prior authorization from the general meeting itself before an owner can begin tourist rental activity. This authorization regime must also be approved with the same three-fifths majority and may include specific conditions, such as the payment of a special fee to compensate for the greater use of common areas.

Third key: non-retroactivity. The reform does not affect tourist licenses already granted and in force at the time the law took effect. Tourist apartments operating legally before the community adopts the ban resolution can continue to do so. Only new license applications will be blocked if the community has registered the agreement in the Land Registry (Registro de la Propiedad).

How your community can ban or restrict tourist apartments

The procedure is not particularly complicated, but it does require following the steps in the correct order. An error in the notice or in the drafting of the minutes can render the agreement legally invalid.

Step 1: Request inclusion on the agenda

Any property owner can request that the president or the property manager include this matter on the agenda of the next ordinary general meeting. It is also possible to request the convening of an extraordinary meeting if the matter is urgent.

The request must be made in writing and with sufficient advance notice so that it is reflected in the meeting notice. It is not valid to raise the vote on tourist apartments as part of any other business: since it is a resolution requiring a qualified majority and one that may be registered in the Land Registry, it must appear expressly on the agenda.

Step 2: The meeting notice and required documentation

The notice must be sent with a minimum of six days’ advance notice for ordinary meetings (your community’s bylaws may have established a longer period). It must be sent to all property owners by a means that allows proof of receipt — certified mail, burofax, or formal notification — and must include:

The agenda with express mention of the item on tourist activity.
The specific proposal to be put to a vote: whether it is a total ban, partial restriction, or prior authorization regime.
If the community has drafted a proposed text for the bylaws, it is advisable to attach it so that owners can evaluate it before the meeting.

It is recommended that the property manager or, where applicable, a lawyer specializing in horizontal property review the proposal text before the meeting. A poorly drafted agreement can be challenged.

Step 3: The vote — three-fifths majority

During the meeting, the president puts the item to a vote. For the resolution to be valid, two conditions must be met simultaneously:

At least three-fifths of the total property owners in the building must vote in favor (not just those present, but the total number in the community).
Those favorable votes must represent at least three-fifths of the total participation shares of the building.

Owners who do not attend the meeting can delegate their vote in writing or remain as absent. The law provides that, once the resolution is notified to the absent owners, if within thirty days they do not express their opposition, their vote is counted as favorable. This mechanism can be decisive in communities where meeting attendance is low.

The secretary must precisely record the voting result in the minutes: number of owners in favor and against, the shares they represent, and the final result. If any absent owner who did not vote at the meeting subsequently supports the resolution, that detail must also be recorded.

Step 4: Register the agreement in the Land Registry

This is the step that many communities skip, yet it is essential for the ban to be enforceable against third parties — especially future buyers or those applying for a new tourist license.

To register the agreement you must:

Certify the meeting minutes with the signatures of the president and the secretary.
In many cases, elevate the agreement to a public deed before a notary.
File the deed at the Land Registry (Registro de la Propiedad) corresponding to the municipality where the building is located.

The cost is manageable — mainly notary fees and registry charges — and it is well worth the expense if the community has a genuine concern about the growth of tourism in the building.

What happens with tourist apartments that already hold a license

This is the point that generates the most frustration in communities that take the step of banning tourist activity: the law is not retroactive. Owners who already hold a valid license when the resolution is adopted can continue operating as normal.

What the community can do in this case is:

Approve a surcharge on the common expenses fee for apartments under tourist rental, provided there is a basis in the bylaws or it is approved with the corresponding majority. This surcharge can reach up to 20% of the regular fee according to prevailing legal doctrine.
Establish specific coexistence rules for guests of tourist apartments — quiet hours, use of common areas, access protocol — that are binding on the landlord.
Systematically document incidents, because if the license expires in the future or the owner applies for renewal, the existence of a resolution registered in the Land Registry will block that renewal.

If you are considering renting out your own property for tourist use before your community approves a ban, we recommend reading this article where we explain what you should consider before renting your home for tourist use.

Checklist: model agreement for your meeting minutes

The meeting minutes are the document that provides legal support for the resolution. Below you will find the essential elements it must contain and the most common errors to avoid.

Elements the agreement must include

Identification of the community: name or description of the building, full address, and land registry number if available.
Date, time, and place of the meeting.
List of attendees and represented owners: name, apartment, and participation share of each owner present or represented.
Attendance quorum: verification that the necessary quorum was reached to hold the meeting on first or second call.
Verbatim text of the agenda item related to tourist apartments.
Debate and positions: summary of arguments expressed by owners who request it.
Voting result: number of votes in favor, against, and abstentions, with their corresponding representation in participation shares.
Text of the adopted resolution: precise wording of what has been decided — total ban, partial restriction, or prior authorization regime — with express reference to the reformed Article 17.12 LPH.
Signatures of the president and the secretary.
Notification to absent owners and opposition deadline: express mention that the resolution will be notified to non-attending owners and that they have thirty days to oppose it.

Common errors to avoid

Not including the item on the agenda with sufficient detail. A generic reference to “coexistence matters” is not sufficient. The agenda must expressly mention tourist activity and the type of restriction to be voted on.

Miscalculating the quorum. The most common error is calculating the three-fifths based on attendees rather than on the total number of owners. If the building has 20 apartments, you need 12 favorable votes representing at least 60% of the shares, regardless of how many owners attended the meeting.

Not waiting the thirty-day period for absent owners. The resolution is not perfected until that period expires without the absent owners having expressed their opposition. Elevating the agreement to a public deed before that month has passed can create problems at the Land Registry.

Forgetting to register the agreement in the Land Registry. Without registration, the agreement binds current owners but is not enforceable against future buyers or against the administration when granting new licenses.

Not specifying whether the ban is total or partial. Ambiguous wording — “tourist activity is limited as far as possible” — has no legal value. The agreement must be clear: absolute ban, restriction to certain apartments, requirement of prior authorization, etc.

How tourist apartments affect your community’s common areas

Beyond the legal debate, there is a tangible impact that many communities are already experiencing. According to data from property management associations, communities with a significant percentage of tourist apartments register up to 40% more incidents in common areas than those with exclusively residential use.

The most common problems are:

Overcrowding of pools and recreation areas during peak season, when the rotation of guests creates demand spikes that the facilities and equipment are not designed to handle.
Accelerated deterioration of elevators, lobbies, and hallways due to the intensive traffic of suitcases and careless use of facilities by people who have no connection to the community.
Access control difficulties: without a structured system, it is impossible to know at any given moment who is using the facilities and whether they have the right to do so.
Parking conflicts when guests occupy garage spaces belonging to owners who may not need them at that particular moment.
Nighttime noise and complaints from permanent residents whose rest is disturbed by the activity inherent to vacation tourism.

These problems do not disappear with a ban on new tourist apartments, because existing licenses remain valid. And in communities that decide to regulate them rather than ban them, the management of common areas becomes an urgent necessity.

Automatic door and access opening is another area where technology can make a difference: instead of handing out physical keys or generic security codes to each guest, the owner can manage access remotely and temporarily, with a complete record of entries and exits.

Manage the impact on your common areas with Colindar

Regardless of whether your community decides to ban tourist apartments or regulate them, there is an immediate problem to solve: the use of common areas by temporary guests. When turnover is high, pool shifts overflow, padel courts fill up without control, and nobody knows whether the person at the gym is a resident or a passing tourist.

With Colindar you can establish a digital booking system that guarantees equitable access to facilities. Each resident — and, if you choose, each authorized guest — has their own controlled access. Furthermore, thanks to the pool capacity control module, you can set capacity limits and prevent common areas from becoming overcrowded during peak season.

Digitizing the management of your common areas is not just a matter of convenience: it is about protecting every owner’s investment. Discover how Colindar can help you by requesting a free demo.