Málaga City Council has approved in an extraordinary session a three-year moratorium on new licenses for tourist apartments and hotels in residential areas. The measure, which only received votes from the PP, will be published in the BOP by mid-next week.
The Málaga City Council has taken a giant step in regulating tourist rentals. In an extraordinary session held this Thursday, the municipal corporation approved a precautionary suspension of new licenses for tourist apartments, hotels, and any other accommodation in all residential areas of the capital. The measure will be in effect for three years and will come into force as soon as it is published in the Official Bulletin of the Province, a process that the City Council expects to complete by mid-next week.
The moratorium, pushed by the PP government team, passed with votes in favour from the Popular Party, abstention from the PSOE, and opposition from Vox and Con Málaga. None of the amendments presented by the opposition were accepted. The socialist spokesperson, Mariano Ruiz Araujo, harshly criticised the measure, warning that it could become "a real loophole" as it is not retroactive.
What does the moratorium mean for Málaga residents?
The suspension affects the granting of new licenses for tourist use homes, tourist apartments managed as complete buildings, and hotels in all areas classified as residential. In practice, this means that for the next three years no new tourist accommodation can open in neighbourhoods such as El Palo, La Malagueta, the historic Centre, or the Teatinos area, unless the application was already submitted before the regulation comes into force.
The measure also tightens the requirements for converting vacant commercial premises into homes, a practice that has surged in recent years. The declared aim of the City Council is to curb touristification and protect the residential market for Málaga residents, who are witnessing skyrocketing rental prices while homes are allocated to visitors.
Opposition criticism: a potential last-minute "loophole"
The main point of friction has been the lack of retroactivity of the moratorium. Projects for tourist apartments that already had their application in progress before the regulation is published will be able to continue processing normally. The PSOE spokesperson, Mariano Ruiz Araujo, warned that this could lead to "a last-minute avalanche of applications" in the days leading up to the regulation coming into force, which would undermine the purpose of the suspension.
According to data from the municipal file itself, between 2019 and 2025, the City Council has already approved 217 files for tourist apartments in complete buildings, not counting standalone tourist homes, which Araujo claims are "many more." At that rate, he warned, the regulation risks becoming "a loophole" if all entry points are not closed before the BOP is published.
From Vox and Con Málaga, the measure was labelled as "insufficient" and "late," and they called for a more ambitious regulation that included the limitation of already granted licenses or a moratorium across the entire metropolitan area. The City Council, however, defends that this is the most ambitious measure possible within its powers and that it will serve to "bring order" to the market.
Background: two years of progressive regulation
Málaga has been trying to contain the advance of tourist housing since 2024. In June of that year, the City Council required that tourist apartments have separate entrances and services from the rest of the building. By January 2025, it prohibited registering new tourist homes in 43 neighbourhoods where they already represented more than 8% of the residential stock, a limit set after an impact study.
In the remaining 328 neighbourhoods, only registrations with independent entrances were allowed. The moratorium approved today goes a step further by suspending any new accommodation licenses in all residential areas of the city. For the average Málaga resident, this means a breather: for three years, no more tourist apartments will be added to the existing supply, which could ease the pressure on long-term rentals, although the real effect will depend on how the transitional period is managed.
The measure will come into effect by mid-next week, once published in the BOP. Until then, the City Council recommends that citizens with questions about their projects consult with municipal technical services to see if their application can be covered under the previous regime.
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