In April 2025 the Spanish Ley de Propiedad Horizontal was amended to introduce a new rule for short-term holiday rentals in community buildings: a three-fifths (3/5) majority vote of the community of owners is now required before any new VUT licence can be granted. The amendment has reshaped the Mijas rental market faster than most owners expected. Here's what Mijas owners need to know.
What the rule actually says
Under the April 2025 amendment to the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal, every community building (comunidad de propietarios) must hold a formal vote and reach a 60% majority in favour before any new VUT application can proceed.
Three things owners often misunderstand:
- The rule applies to new licences. Existing VUT licences granted before April 2025 are grandfathered.
- The 3/5 threshold is on the comunidad's full member roster, not just attendees at a meeting.
- The rule applies to community buildings only. Individual freehold villas without a comunidad de propietarios are not subject to the vote.
How Mijas enforces it
Mijas is among the strictest enforcers of the 3/5 community-of-owners rule in Andalucía.
That dynamic plays out differently per sub-market. La Cala de Mijas and Mijas Pueblo tend toward one pattern; Calahonda and the inland zones often differ. We don't keep a city-wide registry of how each comunidad has voted — vote positions change and the only authoritative source is each comunidad's own meeting minutes — but we read those minutes for every property we consider managing.
What grandfathered means in practice
If a property already had a VUT licence granted before April 2025, the licence continues under its previous terms. The vote rule does not retroactively affect existing licences. However:
- If the property changes ownership, the existing VUT can usually transfer with the property — but only if the comunidad has not since voted prohibition.
- If a grandfathered licence lapses (e.g., owner doesn't renew, files no N2 for two consecutive years), reactivating it falls under the new vote rule.
For Mijas buyers, this means existing-VUT properties are now genuinely scarcer and command a small premium over comparable non-VUT stock.
What buyers should check before offering
Before any Mijas property offer, we recommend:
- Read the building's comunidad meeting minutes for the past 24 months. Look for votes on "alquiler turístico", "VUT" or "uso turístico". Whoever the current administrator (administrador de fincas) is can provide minutes on request.
- Confirm whether existing VUT licences exist in the building. The Junta de Andalucía maintains a public register; we can pull this for you.
- Check the comunidad statutes (estatutos) for any clauses prohibiting short-term rental — some buildings adopted such clauses long before 2025.
- Ask the seller for the property's own VUT status if applicable. If the seller has an active VUT, ask to see the licence document.
Skipping these checks before offering is the single most common mistake we see Mijas buyers make.
What sellers should know
If you're selling a Mijas property with an existing VUT, that licence is now a meaningful asset. We typically recommend:
- Keeping the licence active through to closing (filing the N2 each February even in a sale year)
- Documenting the licence properly for the sale dossier
- Pricing the property to reflect the licence's value relative to comparable non-VUT stock
A grandfathered VUT in a building where the comunidad has since voted prohibition is unusually valuable — there is genuinely no way for a future buyer to obtain a new licence in that building.
How Glaser handles the vote question
For every property we onboard for short-let management in Mijas, we read the comunidad minutes to confirm the current vote position. If the building has voted prohibition, we explain why short-let isn't viable and discuss long-stay or capital-growth alternatives instead. If the vote position is unclear, we hold off until the next comunidad meeting clarifies.
Honest nos save owners from regulatory and platform-delisting headaches that often surface six to twelve months into a misaligned management agreement.
