Stage 6 of 6

Stage 6: Rent the home out

§ 1Where this stage sits in the purchase

This is the last stage on the timeline, yet many buyers think about it first. If you want the home to earn, the plan for letting exists before the offer, and the rules for letting can still sink that plan after completion. The earlier stages settle whether you can buy, what the purchase costs, where to buy, which papers to check and how to own and sell. This stage asks what the home must earn and what the law lets it earn.

The order matters because a let is not a feature of the home. It is a legal status that the home has or lacks. A flat in a block whose owners have voted against tourist lets cannot be a holiday flat, however well it is furnished. A home with a sitting tenant cannot be handed over empty. Read this stage twice if you can: once before you make an offer, to see whether your plan survives the rules, and once after completion, when you sign a lease or apply for a registry number.

Everything here sits in the rent and invest section, the only section of the stage. It has four chapters and eighteen notes. Each page says which official texts it read and which it could not read, and this page repeats those gaps where they matter.

§ 2What this stage settles

At the end you should have five things, in writing where possible:

• One sentence that says what the home must do for you, and what you would do if the rules became stricter.
• A choice of way to let: a long lease to a resident, a tourist let, or a mix around your own stays.
• A net yield, worked out from real rents and real costs, that still works in a bad year.
• The papers that belong to your way of letting, in one file.
• Written answers from a lawyer on the lease or the authorisation, and from a tax adviser on tax in Spain and at home.

None of these can be replaced by a figure from an advert. The pages ask you to build each one yourself, and they name the professional who should check it.

§ 3Decide what the home must do

Start with the chapter on how to judge a Spanish home as an investment. It sets out the main routes: a long let, which is the steadiest and the most regulated, a short tourist let, which can earn more per night but depends on licences and votes, holding the home for your own use and growth, and renovating to resell or let. It adds that a non-resident owner of an unlet home still pays tax on imputed income, and that the government ended the investor residence visa for property on 3 April 2025. The point for you is that a plan which depends on one rule staying the same is fragile.

Read the short note on whether the goal is use or income next. It gives two questions: would you still buy the home if it earned nothing, and would you still buy it if you could never stay in it? A yes to the first means income is a bonus. A yes to the second means you are buying an investment and should judge it as one. The note also explains what mixing the two does to the tax, to the choice of place and to your lender's view of the rent.

Then open the usual ways an investment goes wrong. It covers legal change, empty months, tax, slow sale, currency, physical damage and papers, and ends with a simple register: each risk, the evidence you have, the loss if it happens and your plan. A risk with a large loss and no plan is a reason to change the price or the purchase.

§ 4Long let: the lease, the tenant and the agent

A long let is the steadiest route and the most regulated one. The tenant's rights are written into the act, so learn how far they go before you buy.

The law of the lease

The chapter on the long let chapter for foreign owners starts from the urban lettings act, the LAU. A lease of a home as a main residence has a minimum term of five years, or seven years if the landlord is a company. A shorter agreed term is extended year by year up to that minimum. The tenant may leave after six months on thirty days notice, and you cannot recover the home early except in narrow cases the contract must state. Short tourist-style lets of up to thirty-one days sit outside the act, which is why the choice of way to let comes first.

The detail is in the note on the lettings act's term and notice rules. After the minimum, the current text lets the lease continue by annual periods unless a party gives notice: four months from the landlord and two months from the tenant. A decree-law of October 2026 would change this from 15 November 2026 if it is validated. The pages say plainly that we have not read its operative text, and the note adds that the articles on rent updates and the deposit were also outside the part of the act we read. Ask your lawyer what applies on the day you sign.

Choosing a home, or buying one that is let

If the home is still to be chosen, the note on choosing a home that will let well says to start from the tenant: who rents in the area, what they need and how long homes stay empty. It then goes through running costs, the community rules, the condition, the energy certificate, the papers and the lease. It asks for a signed inventory whether you let furnished or not.

If the home already has a tenant, read what to ask the seller of a let home before you sign anything. The buyer takes over the landlord's rights and obligations for the initial minimum period, and the deposit comes with them. The note lists what to request: the lease with its annexes, the rent history, proof of the deposit, any arrears and the inventory. Its advice is to price the home with the tenant in it and make the purchase depend on the documents. It does not assume vacant possession, and neither should you. It also says we did not read the article on the tenant's right of first refusal, so that question goes to your lawyer.

Handing it to an agent

Owners who live abroad often need help, and the note on how to vet and brief a letting agent gives the questions: does the business exist, what does the written contract promise, where are rent and the deposit held, what spending limit applies before the agent must ask you, and how can you end the contract. We name no agent and take no commission from any. The tax return and the legal duties stay with you, and contracts and reports will be in Spanish.

§ 5Holiday let: three layers before the first booking

A tourist let needs more than one thing at once. The chapter on the three layers of a tourist let names them: the authorisation and registration of the region or the municipality, the express approval of the community of owners in a block, and a national layer that is now thinner than it was. Miss one and the others do not help. The chapter also warns against relying on a home's past use, because a licence may not pass to a buyer in every region.

The national number and the platform

Royal Decree 1312/2024 of 23 December created one national procedure for registering short-term rentals. The Supreme Court annulled the provisions that set it up in a judgment published in the gazette on 8 June 2026. The note on the annulled national registry number explains what the decree did, what the court removed and what stays: regional registers and rules, and the platforms' duty to send data to the authorities. We read the operative part of the judgment, not its reasoning, and could not confirm how numbers already issued are treated. A Madrid case from before the judgment still shows that a regional registration and a municipal licence are separate papers.

That order explains the note on what a platform listing requires first. A listing is advertising, and some regions require the number in every advert. The note says the platform is the last step. It also covers guest records for the police, accurate capacity in the advert, and decree-law 29/2026, which taxes furnished lets of up to thirty nights at 10% VAT from 1 December 2026 if Congress validates it. We read those articles in the gazette.

The community of owners

Since 3 April 2025 the horizontal property law asks a new tourist let in a building for the community’s prior express approval, and requires the favourable vote of three fifths of the owners to approve, limit or prohibit tourist rental. The note on the owners' vote on tourist lets adds what matters to a buyer: a decision recorded in the registry can bind later owners, the Valencian tourism directorate says homes registered before the decision keep their registration, and a vote can come after you buy. Read the statutes and the minutes, ask for the written approval, and ask the administrator whether a vote is planned.

The regional rules, one note at a time

There is no national licence, so the region matters. The chapter covers six places, and for any other region you must ask a lawyer. Each note starts by saying what was read.

For the Valencian Community, the note on the Valencian self-registration route describes an electronic self-registration. The directorate lists the occupancy licence, a single cadastral reference, liability insurance and, on urban land, a favourable municipal report on urban compatibility. The source is an undated FAQ and the directorate's main pages could not be fetched, so check the current text. For Andalusia, the note on the Andalusian operating-period rules works from a notice, not the decree: registration numbers change prefix, owners declare the periods in which the home operates, and adverts must match them. The notice says nothing on statutes or municipal licences.

The two strictest texts come next. In Catalonia, the note on Catalonia's prior planning licence reports that 262 listed municipalities need a prior urban planning licence, that it lasts five years, and that licences are capped at ten per hundred inhabitants. Its advice is not to buy in a listed municipality expecting a new licence. In the Balearic Islands, the note on the Balearic fines and freeze on places reports a freeze on acquiring tourist places in Mallorca, Ibiza and Formentera, a stay limit that is exceeded above thirty nights, and fines from up to 5,000 euros for minor cases to 50,001 to 500,000 euros for very serious ones. Owners, marketers and tenants can all be liable. The text we read was cut after the fifth article, so ask a lawyer for the operative text.

The last two are the Canary Islands and Madrid. The note on the Canary rule that planning comes first says tourist use of a residential building needs prior enabling by urban planning, and that new enabling is suspended in areas declared stressed residential markets. Sanctions and transitional rules were not in the text we read. The note on the Madrid licence and certificate rules adds the municipal activity licence in Madrid city, a suitability certificate signed by a technician and the community's approval, notes a 2026 amending decree that we did not read, and warns that the regional page says its content is indicative.

Before you rely on any of this income, test the purchase against a refusal of the licence or a ban by the community. If the home still works as a long let or as your own home at a price you accept, the risk is smaller. If it works only as a tourist let, price the risk of losing that use.

§ 6Do the sums: yield after Spanish tax

The chapter on building a yield you can trust defines the two figures. Gross yield is the yearly rent over the price. Net yield is the rent you keep after costs, empty months and tax, over the total cost of buying. The gross figure is a filter and the net figure is the measure. We print no yields for any city or region, because we found no official, current series, and the chapter says why advert figures are optimistic.

The worksheet is in the note on the yield worksheet, line by line: price, costs of buying, a cautious rent, empty months, yearly costs and income tax. It asks you to test a bad year with extra empty months and a large repair. If you borrow, it asks you to keep the yield of the property apart from the return on your own money, and to check that the rent covers the instalment in a bad year. Compare homes only on one method.

Tax is where non-resident owners differ. The note on what Spanish tax takes from the rent gives the rate of 19% for residents of the EU, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein and 24% for other non-residents. In general the base is the gross rent with no expense deducted. Residents of another EU or EEA state with effective exchange of information may deduct expenses directly related to the income, if they can prove them. That is why two owners of the same home can have different net yields. Months without a tenant bring imputed income, and your home country may tax the rent too.

To compare places, the note on comparing cities without a yield table says to ask at least three local agents for the rents of recent leases, to ask a block's administrator what owners receive, and to look at districts, because a city average hides them. Use the same cautious assumptions everywhere.

§ 7Where readers get stuck

The first problem is treating an advert as proof of income. Rents in adverts are asking rents, and the yield pages ask for agreed rents from leases, community fees from the accounts and tax from the bill. The second is mixing up the papers of a tourist let. A regional registration, a municipal licence or declaration and the community's approval are three separate things, and the Madrid case shows a refusal over the gap between the first two.

The third is buying a let home and assuming it comes empty or with its permissions intact. A tenant comes with the lease, the deposit and any arrears. A tourist licence may not pass to a buyer in every region, and the notes on regions say to ask the town hall and a lawyer in writing. The fourth is waiting for the community vote. The owners can decide after you buy, and the registry decides whether the decision binds you.

The fifth is tax. An owner from outside the EU and EEA who expects costs to reduce the Spanish tax on rent will be surprised, because the base is in general the gross rent. The sixth is rules in motion. Decree-laws of October 2026 touch lets and taxes and await validation, the Supreme Court annulled the national registry number in 2026, and our pages say what we could not read. Any plan that only works under one version of the rules is exposed.

§ 8How to know the plan is ready to run

You are ready to sign a lease or file for a number when these are true:

• You can say in one sentence what the home must do, and what you would do if the rules tightened.
• You hold, in one file, the papers for your way of letting: for a long let, the lease, the inventory, the energy certificate and proof of the deposit; for a tourist let, the regional registration, the municipal licence or declaration, the community's written approval and minutes, and the insurance policy.
• Your net yield still works with a lower rent and more empty months, and you know whether the instalment is covered if you borrow.
• A lawyer has confirmed the lease terms or the authorisation in writing, and a tax adviser has modelled the tax in Spain and at home.
• You hold a reserve for repairs and empty months, and you have decided when and why you would sell.

If one line is missing, close it before the first tenant or the first guest. Once the home is let, keep the file up to date and run the worksheet again each year with real figures and current rates, because the rules and the rates are still moving.

Legal note. How the process works in general. It is not legal advice, and it never replaces an independent Spanish lawyer acting for you.