Costa del Sol · Tourist Licence
Published May 2025 · By Real Estate Lawyer Costa del Sol / Salama Legal SLP
Buying a property on the Costa del Sol that already has a tourist licence — or selling one — sounds straightforward. In practice, the handover of that rental income stream involves legal steps that many buyers and sellers overlook completely. If those steps are skipped, the new owner can find themselves unable to rent legally, exposed to fines, and facing months of delay getting back on the market.
This guide explains exactly what happens to a VUT (Vivienda de Uso Turístico) tourist licence during a property sale in Andalucía, what both parties need to do, and where legal advice is essential.
The first and most important point to understand: a VUT tourist licence in Andalucía is not an asset that passes automatically with the property. The registration is made in the name of a specific owner (whether an individual or a company). When the property changes hands, the licence does not travel with it.
This means that a buyer purchasing a property with an active tourist licence is not buying the licence itself — they are buying a property that is eligible to be registered for tourist rental, provided all the underlying physical and legal conditions continue to be met. The buyer must start their own registration process from scratch.
For specialist support through the full re-registration process, our partner site licenciaturisticaandalucia.es offers a dedicated tourist licence service covering the entire Andalucía region.
All legally rented tourist properties in Andalucía are listed on the National Register of Tourist Accommodation (Registro de Turismo de Andalucía), sometimes referred to as the NRA. Each registered property has a unique licence number that must appear on all advertising — Airbnb, Booking.com, VRBO, and any other platform.
When a sale takes place, the following steps are required:
The re-registration process also requires the buyer to confirm that the property continues to meet all habitability and physical requirements under Decree 31/2024 (the current regulatory framework for tourist housing in Andalucía).
Just because a property has been successfully rented as a tourist let for years does not mean the buyer will be able to do the same. Before exchanging contracts, a buyer's lawyer should verify all of the following:
We carry out all of these checks as part of our standard due diligence on tourist licence properties. Our partner licenciaturisticaandalucia.es handles the actual licence application once the due diligence is complete.
This is one of the most common — and most dangerous — issues we see in tourist licence property transactions. If the seller is currently subject to sanction proceedings relating to the tourist licence, the buyer needs to understand the nature of those proceedings very carefully before proceeding.
Sanctions in Andalucía for tourist licence violations can range from fines for minor infractions (such as missing documentation on platforms) to serious proceedings for operating without a valid licence, misrepresenting property characteristics, or breaching habitability requirements.
If the sanction is purely personal to the seller — for example, a fine for an administrative failure — it will not pass to the buyer. However, if the sanction relates to a physical deficiency in the property (a room that does not meet minimum size requirements, a missing safety certificate, an illegal structural modification), the buyer will inherit those physical problems and may not be able to re-register until they are resolved.
In some cases, the right solution is to negotiate a price reduction to cover the cost of rectifying the issues. In other cases, the correct advice is not to proceed. Getting legal advice before signing anything is not optional in these situations.
If you are selling a property with a tourist licence, there are practical steps you can take before listing that will make your property easier to sell and reduce the risk of a buyer pulling out during due diligence:
The intersection of tourist licence law and property conveyancing is a specialist area. A general property lawyer who has not worked specifically with tourist licence transactions may not know what to search for, what questions to ask, or which databases to check.
At Salama Legal SLP, Jacob Salama handles the conveyancing and legal due diligence on tourist licence properties across the Costa del Sol. For the actual licence application and re-registration after purchase, we work alongside licenciaturisticaandalucia.es, who are specialists in the Junta de Andalucía registration process from start to finish.
Together, we can cover the full transaction: legal due diligence, contract review, notary deed, land registry registration, tax settlement, and post-completion licence re-registration. Get in touch to discuss your purchase or sale.
No. In Andalucía a VUT licence is registered to a specific owner and cannot be transferred or assigned. When the property changes hands, the buyer must submit a new declaration of responsibility and obtain their own registration number with the Junta de Andalucía.
No. The NRA registration number is personal to the registered owner. After a sale the new owner must re-register, which typically generates a new entry. All advertising platforms — Airbnb, Booking.com, etc. — must then be updated to display the new licence details.
Pending sanction proceedings are a serious red flag. Sanctions relating to physical conditions of the property — habitability or planning violations — can affect the buyer's ability to re-register. Full due diligence before exchange of contracts is essential.
A buyer should verify that the existing licence is validly registered, check the NRA database for current registration status, confirm there are no pending sanctions, review the property's planning and habitability certificates, and check the community of owners' rules for short-term rentals. A dedicated lawyer can carry out all these checks before you sign any contract.
We handle the legal due diligence on tourist licence status as part of every purchase. Contact us for a free initial consultation.