New 5-Year Tourist Licence Rule in Valencia: Essential Updates

Tourist licence in Spain: A new law in the Valencian Community has just shaken up the Tourist licence requirements, and it’s going to affect you. The Valencian Government says this is all due to a massive 160% increase in licences over the last 8 years, with over 100,000 now issued. On top of that, illegal rentals are still causing issues. Because of all this, they’ve tightened up the rules, added stricter controls, and increased fines. Let’s break down the changes so you don’t get caught off guard by any misinformation.

Updated Definition of Tourist Licence:

“Tourist accommodations are complete properties which are rented for a price for tourist purposes for a period of 10 days or less calculated continuously to the same guest and which have a favourable municipal report of urban compatibility for tourist use.”

The big change here is the new 10-day max per guest. This means you can’t rent your place out to the same person for a full month anymore, which could seriously cut into your potential earnings.

5-Year Licence

Another big change is that licences now expire every 5 years. We used to have lifetime licences that could even be passed to new owners. Now you’ll need to renew your tourist licence every 5 years.

You’ll have to submit the renewal a year before the 5-year mark. The tricky part is that you’ll need a new urban compatibility report from your town hall. It’s basically like starting the whole process over. Even here in a law office, we all know how slow town halls can be with this kind of stuff.

Plus, with around 100,000 licences expiring at the same time, there’s going to be a rush for renewals. It’s smart to start prepping early so you don’t lose your tourist licence.

Community of Owners

Any newly issued tourist licenses will require approval from approximately three-fifths of the homeowners’ association if your property is located in a community and governed by the Horizontal Property Law. Your Administrators will need to issue you with a Cer­ti­fic­ate which confirms property rentals is per­mit­ted, this certificate has to be submitted with your application.

What happens if I don’t do a renewal?

The tourist licence then expires, and you won’t be able to rent your property.

What happens with previous licences?

For licences approved before 2^nd August 2024 (even if you applied before but haven’t received it yet), you’ve got until 2^nd August  2029, to renew. So basically, everyone gets a 5-year grace period.

If you have a licence from before 2018 or one missing some details, like the cadastral reference, you might get a notification to update that info. But don’t worry — you still have the same 5-year window to get everything in order.

Security and quality rules

The Government is concerned that many tourist apartments don’t meet the security and quality standards needed for a reliable sector. Because of this, they’ve introduced new safety and quality measures to create a consistent standard across the board. More details in the decree.

As you can see, these changes are significant and it’s no surprise there’s confusion among owners since the updates haven’t been communicated clearly. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to our team at Spanish Solutions — we’re happy to help.

If you’ve done your tourist licence through Spanish Solutions, you’re covered with all the required info, and you shouldn’t need any updates until your renewal.

This Tourist licence in Spain info is based on the Valencian law decree 09/2024 from 2^nd August 2024.

Contact us today, if you have any questions or require assistance enquiries@spanishsolutions.net or +34966761741

IMPORTANT UPDATE Start­ing in Janu­ary 2025, a new law re­quires all hold­ers of tour­ist rental li­censes to re­gister their prop­erty and li­cense de­tails in the of­fi­cial prop­erty re­gistry, click HERE to read details of this new law.