Tourist apartment in community: how to prohibit it and what the law says

An owner starts renting out their apartment on Airbnb. Every weekend, suitcases enter and exit through the building's entrance, tourists who don't know the community rules, noise at odd hours, and a saturated elevator. The other neighbors are fed up and want to ban it. Can they? How?

This is one of the queries that has grown the most in the last three years among property managers in Spain. And the answer is not simple, because it depends on when one wants to act, what the current statutes say, and in which autonomous community the property is located.

What is a tourist apartment for legal purposes?

A tourist apartment is a residential dwelling that is rented out regularly and for short periods (generally less than 30 days) to tourists, through platforms such as Airbnb, Booking, or Vrbo. It differs from ordinary residential rental in its temporality and non-permanent use.

The regulation of tourist apartments in Spain is the responsibility of the autonomous communities, so licensing requirements, capacity limits, and restrictions vary significantly between Catalonia, Madrid, Andalusia, and the Canary Islands. But regarding the scope of the community of owners, the reference standard is the Spanish Horizontal Property Law (LPH).

What the LPH says about tourist apartments

The 2019 reform of the LPH (Royal Decree-Law 7/2019) introduced a specific tool for communities to act against tourist apartments. Article 17.12 of the LPH establishes two possibilities:

1. Prohibit or limit tourist rentals

The board can agree to prohibit or limit the exercise of tourist rental activity in the building. This agreement requires the favorable vote of three-fifths of the owners representing three-fifths of the participation quotas.

This agreement binds all owners, including those who voted against it and those absent from the meeting. Once approved, it must be registered in the Property Register to be enforceable against future buyers.

2. Establish a special fee for tourist apartments

Alternatively, or complementarily, the board can establish a special expense fee for owners who carry out tourist activity. The justification is the greater wear and tear on common elements (elevator, entrance, common areas) caused by the constant flow of tourists. This agreement also requires 3/5 of owners and quotas.

What if the tourist apartment already existed before the agreement?

Here is the most important nuance that many administrators are unaware of: the board's agreement prohibiting tourist apartments does not have retroactive effect on activities already existing at the time of approval.

That is, if an owner was already renting their apartment as a tourist rental when the board approves the prohibition, they can continue to do so. The prohibition only affects apartments that wish to start tourist activity from the date of the agreement.

For apartments that already operate as tourist rentals before the agreement, the only way is to demonstrate that they generate serious nuisances that go against coexistence rules or the statutes — and act through that channel, not through Article 17.12.

What happens if the statutes already prohibit non-residential uses?

If the community statutes establish that dwellings can only be used for residential purposes and expressly prohibit commercial or tourist uses, the community can act without the need for any additional board agreement.

In this case, the administrator can require the owner to cease the tourist activity for being contrary to the statutes. If they do not, the community can file a cessation action (art. 7.2 LPH) which may include compensation for damages.

The Supreme Court has repeatedly confirmed that a statutory clause prohibiting non-residential use is sufficient to prevent tourist apartments, without the need for the 2019 reform.

Differences by autonomous community in 2026

In addition to the LPH, each Autonomous Community has its own regulations:

• Catalonia: license moratorium in Barcelona city since 2015, successively renewed. In many Catalan municipalities, it is practically impossible to obtain a new tourist apartment license.
• Madrid: municipal regulation in the city of Madrid that limits tourist apartments in the historic center and requires a tertiary use license.
• Andalusia: mandatory registration and registration number that must appear in all advertisements. Without registration, the activity is illegal.
• Balearic Islands and Canary Islands: very strict limitations due to tourist saturation, with areas where it is directly prohibited for dwellings in multi-family buildings.
• Valencian Community: mandatory regional license and the possibility for city councils to establish saturation zones where the activity is prohibited.

Steps to prohibit a tourist apartment in your community

1. Review the statutes: Do they expressly prohibit non-residential uses? If so, act directly via Article 7.2 LPH.
2. Call an extraordinary meeting with the specific agenda item: "Agreement on prohibition/limitation of tourist activity in the building (art. 17.12 LPH)".
3. Reach 3/5 of owners and quotas in favor. If you don't have them in the first call, the second call requires the same quorums — they are not lowered.
4. Register the agreement in the Property Register so that it is enforceable against future buyers.
5. Formally notify owners with existing tourist activity that the agreement does not affect them retroactively, but that any new activity is prohibited.

How IgeraFincas answers questions about tourist apartments

Owners constantly ask about tourist apartments: if they can rent, what the law says in their autonomous community, what their specific statute says. These are questions with specific answers that depend on the documents of each community.

IgeraFincas reads the statutes of each community and automatically responds via WhatsApp, citing the exact article: if the statutes prohibit non-residential use, it says so. If they say nothing, it also says so. The owner gets the answer in 3 seconds, at any time, without needing to call the administrator.