Important changes for holiday rentals

The Junta de Andalucia has changed the categorisation of tourist rentals, and if you are a renter of a property for holidaymakers, there are a couple of things you will need to do.

There are two very slightly different categorisations of holiday rentals that, while it may appear petty bureaucracy, will cause problems if you don’t make these changes. Many will be listed as a VFT (Viviendas para Fines Turísticos (Homes for tourism ends)). This categorisation has tended to be for more rural or rustic temporary lets, and this is the one the Andalusia government wants to do away with.

Holiday rentals must update their advertising

Many believe that the VFT licence categorisation was contributing to over tourism in small villages and for that reason, there have been calls to change it.

The IT systems of the Andalusia government have already recategorised the properties, so for now all that needs to be amended is the advertising of the properties by their owners over to VUT (Vivienda de use Turístico (Home for tourist use)). The VUT category always tended to be more demanding in terms of what stipulations were attached to a licence application, but now, all tourist rentals in Andalusia must adhere to this stricter level of category.

Renters must tell the government exactly when

Renters will now have to communicate the periods of time the property will be rented out. If you don’t do this, it will be assumed that you are renting the property all year round. If, however, and for example, you have an apartment that you rent to tourists throughout August every year, the process is relatively easy. An online form is available at the Junta’s website. And here’s the complicated part: you need to do this before January 1.

So, for next year’s holiday season, renters will have to communicate the periods they intend to rent out their holiday homes long in advance to the Andalusia government and on the advertising of the property, and failure to do so could incur a fine.