Mijas the municipality is misleading as a single name. The Pueblo on the hillside, the long Costa belt running from Calahonda through Riviera del Sol to La Cala de Mijas, the Mijas Golf valley inland — these are three quite different VUT realities sharing one Ayuntamiento. The 3/5 community vote produces sharply different outcomes between them, sometimes between adjacent urbanizaciones a kilometre apart.
This guide is for owners in any of Mijas's three faces, written from our office in Arroyo de la Miel where we manage rental in Mijas properties through every step of the licensing path.
The shape of the licence, briefly
A VUT (Vivienda con Fines Turísticos) is the regional licence the Junta de Andalucía grants under Decreto 31/2024 authorising a residential property for tourist short-let. No VUT means no Airbnb, no Booking.com, no SES.HOSPEDAJES guest-registration with the Guardia Civil.
The Mijas Ayuntamiento has been notably pragmatic on tourism — there is no municipal saturation cap, no parallel local licence, no moratorium of the kind that exists in Málaga capital. The constraints sit at the regional Junta level and at the comunidad level. Since 1 July 2025, every active VUT must also hold an NRUA national-register entry under Royal Decree 1312/2024.
Mijas Costa — where the 3/5 vote is hardest
The Mijas Costa belt is the heart of the rental-management market in this municipality and the place where the 3/5 community vote has been most contentious. The reason is structural: a typical 1990s-2000s urbanización here — Calahonda, Riviera del Sol, Sitio de Calahonda, Miraflores, El Faro de Calaburras — has between fifty and two hundred apartments arranged in low-rise blocks around shared pools. Half the owners bought for yield. Half bought for retirement and quiet. The 3/5 vote forced these two cohorts to confront a question they had been ignoring.
What we have seen through 2025 and 2026:
Calahonda — long-tenured, mixed-nationality, with the highest density of active VUTs in pre-amendment Mijas — has been variable. Many of the older established urbanizaciones (Sitio de Calahonda among them) had silent estatutos and have voted favourably with conditions, often around quiet hours and a minimum-stay floor. Newer phases adjacent have leaned more restrictive where the long-stay owner balance is stronger.
Riviera del Sol — a similar profile to Calahonda but with somewhat more investor concentration — has leaned consistently permissive on the 3/5 vote.
Miraflores and the elevated developments — quieter, more residentially-oriented, often with stronger British retirement demographics — have produced more restrictive outcomes. Several Miraflores blocks have voted explicit prohibition.
El Faro de Calaburras and the urbanizaciones closer to La Cala — generally pro-vote, particularly in the seafront-adjacent stock.
La Cala de Mijas — the high-yield core
La Cala de Mijas centre is the high-yield rental zone of the municipality. The blocks in and around the village — close to the seafront promenade, walking distance to the beach and the main square — are heavily investor-held and oriented to short-let from the outset. Vote outcomes here have been overwhelmingly favourable.
The elevated developments behind La Cala — La Noria, the Calanova / Mijas Golf adjacent phases — vary. Some have voted permissive; some, particularly those with stronger primary-residence demographics, have leaned restrictive.
Mijas Pueblo — a different conversation
Mijas Pueblo on the hillside is the white village of the municipality, and its apartment stock is markedly different. Buildings are small (six to fifteen units typically), comunidades are often Spanish-owned, and the rental intent is lower-volume — owners frequently use the property themselves for substantial periods. Vote outcomes have been informal and pragmatic, usually settled at AGMs without long debate. We see relatively few new VUT applications in the Pueblo compared to the Costa belt — the licence path here is rarely the constraint.
What grandfathered means in Mijas
Existing VUT licences granted before April 2025 are grandfathered. In a municipality where new vote outcomes have been variable, this matters: a grandfathered Calahonda or Riviera del Sol licence in a building that has since voted restrictively is now genuinely scarce. The market is beginning to price this in.
The grandfathering is fragile. A missed Modelo N2, a lapsed VUT, a flagged compliance issue — any of these risks the licence falling back under the current regime. In a building that has since voted prohibition the licence cannot be re-granted. We treat documentation for these properties with disproportionate care.
The Junta declaración responsable
Where the comunidad path is clear, the Junta's declaración responsable process moves quickly — typically five working days for clean cases. The Mijas Ayuntamiento does not interpose a separate local licence, and for freehold villas (more common in the Mijas Golf valley and on the hillside above the Pueblo than on the Costa) there is no community-vote layer at all.
NRUA — the practical gating layer
NRUA cross-registration is now mandatory and verified by the platforms at listing time. The application follows the VUT and is short. We file it the day the licence is approved; the NRUA confirmation typically comes through within five working days.
Modelo N2 — the annual rhythm
Each February the active VUT files a Modelo N2 with the Junta covering the prior year. In Mijas Costa specifically, the consequence of a missed N2 in a now-restrictive comunidad is severe: the licence cannot be re-granted. We prepare the N2 from the monthly statements through the year.
A realistic Mijas onboarding
For a property in a comunidad that has voted favourably (or in Mijas Pueblo / Mijas Golf where the vote layer is often informal or absent):
- Day 0 — declaración responsable submitted
- Days 1-5 — Junta licence approved
- Days 5-10 — NRUA registration filed
- From Day 10 — platform listings live, SES.HOSPEDAJES configured
For a property in a Mijas Costa urbanización where the 3/5 vote is in progress or unresolved, the realistic timeline is the next AGM — three to nine months out depending on the urbanización's cycle.
Where we help most
For Mijas, the single most valuable thing we do is read the comunidad minutes and estatutos for the specific block before any offer. The variability between adjacent Mijas Costa urbanizaciones is high, and a buyer who assumes Calahonda is uniformly permissive (or that Miraflores is uniformly restrictive) will sometimes be wrong. We do the block-level read for every property we consider managing.