Renting your flat to tourists in the province of Málaga: what each municipality allows in 2026

In short: in the province of Málaga there are four situations. Málaga city does not admit new tourist homes; Fuengirola only with an entrance independent of the building; Manilva has suspended them in its most saturated zone and Ronda limits them with a by-law. In the rest of the Costa del Sol and the Axarquía (Torremolinos, Benalmádena, Marbella, Estepona, Mijas, Nerja, Torrox, Vélez-Málaga, Rincón de la Victoria, Benahavís, Casares) and in Antequera and Alhaurín de la Torre there is no published municipal limit as of 6 October 2026.

Málaga city and the Costa del Sol from Torremolinos to Fuengirola

Municipality	New registrations allowed?	Details
Málaga city	No	Suspension since 23 August 2025 and, since 25 July 2026, the change to the Plan General that removes lodging from residential land. Details in Málaga
Torremolinos	Yes	General rules of the Junta. Details in Torremolinos
Benalmádena	Yes	General rules of the Junta. Details in Benalmádena
Fuengirola	Only with an independent entrance	Houses, terraced houses and ground-floor flats with their own door, yes; flats with a shared entrance hall, no. Details in Fuengirola

These four municipalities have their own page with their zones, their figures and what you need to check.

Where are there limits in the rest of the province?

Manilva: suspended in zone A. The council plenary of 4 December 2025 (provincial gazette of 22 December) agreed to suspend licences and declaraciones responsables (sworn statements) for tourist homes in «zone A» (saturated zones) for a maximum of three years, while its Plan General is changed (article 6 of Decree-law 1/2025). According to the press, zone A includes El Hacho, Puerto de la Duquesa, Los Hidalgos and Princesa Cristina; the official map is what counts. In the rest of the municipality they are admitted. The by-law the town hall is preparing, not yet in force, points towards banning the ground floor in blocks of flats in zone B and requiring 125 m² of usable floor area for houses.

Ronda: yes, with the conditions of its by-law, in force since 26 February 2025 (provincial gazette no. 38 of 25 February):

• In a single-family house, only one tourist home.
• In a block of flats, at most 20 % of the dwellings and 20 % of the floor area, with the entrance through the common areas and not directly from the street façade.
• Turning a home into a tourist home counts as a change of use and requires a parking space (it can be nearby if it is linked before a notary). In the Conjunto Histórico (historic quarter) its protection plan also applies.

And in Marbella, Estepona, Mijas, Nerja and the Axarquía?

In these municipalities we have found no municipal suspension or limit in the provincial gazette (search from January 2024 to October 2026) or on their websites. It is not a certificate: request planning information from the town hall before you start.

Municipality	Municipal limit?	Active tourist homes (INE, May 2026)	Share of all dwellings
Marbella	None recorded	6,987	7.0 %
Mijas	None recorded	4,465	7.2 %
Estepona	None recorded	3,362	6.7 %
Nerja	None recorded	2,731	16.4 %
Torrox	None recorded	1,260	6.3 %
Vélez-Málaga (with Torre del Mar)	None recorded	1,133	2.3 %
Benahavís	None recorded	861	9.0 %
Casares	None recorded	717	9.3 %
Rincón de la Victoria	None recorded	658	2.4 %
Alhaurín de la Torre	None recorded	247	1.5 %
Antequera	None recorded (preparing a by-law)	179	0.9 %

What is worth knowing about some of them:

• Marbella approved its new Plan General in September 2026; the text does not regulate tourist homes and leaves detailed uses to a later plan, still in progress. In February 2025 the town hall announced a municipal register and a limit on converting commercial premises into tourist homes, not approved to date.
• Nerja is the municipality in the province where tourist homes weigh most: one in every six dwellings. That is the kind of figure that leads a town hall to set limits: if your home qualifies, don't put it off.
• Antequera opened a public consultation on a tourist home by-law in November 2025; it has not been approved yet.
• Rincón de la Victoria announced in 2024 limits similar to those of Málaga city, but they do not appear in the provincial gazette.
• Benahavís has the largest tourist homes on the list: more than six places on average. Some private residential estates ban tourist rentals in their bylaws: check yours.

How many tourist homes are there?

According to the INE (Spanish National Statistics Institute), in May 2026 there were 45,176 active tourist homes in the province of Málaga, the most in Andalusia. The INE counts active listings on the platforms, not registrations in the Junta's registry, which are many more: in Marbella, for example, the town hall counted 13,857 registered homes in 2024.

What to check before you start, wherever you are

1. That your municipality's urban plan allows tourist use in your home: Do I need an urban planning compatibility certificate? and Can my town hall suspend new tourist homes?.
2. That your owners' association approves it by a three-fifths majority: Can my owners' association ban it?.
3. That the home meets the Junta's requirements: requirements for the flat.
4. Then, the registration: how the licence is processed.

The rules common to the whole region are in Andalusia by province.

Sources

• Manilva Town Hall: suspension agreement in zone A, BOP de Málaga no. 243, 22 December 2025, and text of the by-law (in Spanish).
• Ronda Town Hall: by-law on technical design and quality standards for residential buildings, BOP de Málaga no. 38, 25 February 2025 (in Spanish).
• Marbella Town Hall: municipal register of tourist homes and new rules on change of use (19 February 2025) (in Spanish).
• Antequera Town Hall: prior public consultation on the tourist home by-law (in Spanish).
• INE: tourist homes by municipality and share of all dwellings, May 2026 data (in Spanish).