Holiday homes and homeowners' associations: can they ban them?

Yes, going forward. Since 3 April 2025, starting to let a home as a holiday rental in a building under horizontal property (a block or complex with a comunidad de propietarios, or homeowners' association) requires the association's prior express approval (art. 7.3 LPH), and the owners' meeting can approve, limit, set conditions on or ban it with the votes of 3/5 of the owners who together hold 3/5 of the shares (art. 17.12 LPH). These resolutions are not retroactive, and anyone who was already operating before can carry on (DA 2ª LPH). In the Canary Islands, Ley 6/2025 also refuses authorisation if the title deeds, the bylaws or the owners' meeting prevent it.

What the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal says

The reform of the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal (LPH, Spain's Horizontal Property Act) made by Ley Orgánica 1/2025, effective from 3 April 2025, changed the rules for tourist homes in buildings with a homeowners' association.

Note that the majority is a double one: 3/5 of the owners and, in addition, 3/5 of the shares. In a bungalow complex in Maspalomas with many owners who live elsewhere, ask the property administrator how votes are counted before the meeting.

What Ley 6/2025 adds in the Canary Islands

The Canary Islands law adds its own rules for registering a new holiday home:

• a holiday home under horizontal property is not authorised if the deed of constitution, the bylaws or a resolution of the owners' meeting prevent it (art. 5.1.c);
• nor in buildings under horizontal property set up as a tourist establishment, because their units are "accommodation units, not homes" (art. 5.1.c, para. 2);
• the declaración responsable (responsible declaration) includes an express statement about the association (art. 7.4.g);
• the documents you must provide include the association's certificate (art. 7.7).

Art. 7 of Ley 6/2025 was amended by Ley 7/2026, in force since 15/08/2026, and the BOE consolidated text does not yet include that change. Check the current wording before submitting your documents. We explain the rest of the procedure in how to get a holiday rental licence today.

If your home was already operating

If you were already letting the home to tourists before the reform and had done so under the tourism rules, DA 2ª of the LPH allows you to carry on. A later resolution of the owners' meeting limiting or banning the activity is not retroactive (art. 17.12 LPH).

That doesn't exempt you from the Canary Islands law: your authorisation is still subject to the deadlines and options in Ley 6/2025, which we cover in what changes if you already have a licence. They are two separate sets of rules that apply at the same time.

If you want to start now

The logical order is this:

1. Read the deed of constitution and the bylaws. If they already ban tourist use, Ley 6/2025 does not allow authorisation (art. 5.1.c).
2. Ask the administrator whether there are any meeting resolutions on holiday homes and request the minutes.
3. If there are none, ask for the matter to be added to the agenda of the next meeting to obtain express approval (art. 7.3 LPH).
4. Once you have the resolution, request the association's certificate, which you will need for the declaración responsable (art. 7.7 Ley 6/2025).

Remember that the association is only one of the requirements: first it's best to confirm that the municipal planning rules allow the use and that the property meets the minimum age.

How to get on well with the neighbours

The law sets out what the association can decide. What often decides things in practice is how everyone gets along day to day. Some things that help:

• clear house rules for guests: quiet hours, use of the pool and shared areas, rubbish and recycling, parking, maximum number of people;
• a contact number for the association or the administrator, in case there's a problem with a guest;
• organised cleaning and arrivals, with no suitcases or bags left in the corridors;
• attending meetings or, if you live elsewhere, sending a proxy;
• dealing with any complaint quickly, before it reaches the owners' meeting.

In our experience, friction with neighbours usually comes from small things that keep happening: noise on the terrace at unsociable hours, towels on the communal pool loungers or rubbish left in the wrong place. When guests receive the rules before they arrive and the association knows whom to call, many of those problems go away.

If we manage your home, guest care is 24/7, so there is always someone to respond to any issue with a guest. That said, we are not lawyers: if there is a legal dispute with the association, it should be handled by one.

General information, updated on 5 October 2026. It is not a substitute for advice from a lawyer.