Spain has cracked down on tourist rentals—but the expected boom in long-term rental supply hasn’t materialised. In fact, the opposite seems to be happening.
Spain’s housing debate has long fixated on short-term tourist rentals as a key culprit behind rising rents and limited supply. So in 2025, authorities moved to revoke thousands of tourist rental licences across the country. The logic was simple: fewer holiday lets should mean more homes returning to the long-term rental market.
The reality has been very different.
According to new data from property portal Idealista, the supply of long-term rental housing actually fell by 26,000 properties in 2025, despite the mass removal of tourist rental licences. That’s not just disappointing—it’s a direct contradiction of the policy’s intended outcome.
A policy that didn’t deliver
Take the Comunidad Valenciana, one of Spain’s most important tourist regions. More than 14,000 tourist rental licences were revoked, yet the number of long-term rentals increased by just over 1,100—barely 8% of the expected conversion.
In Catalonia, the picture is even more striking. The region lost over 15,000 long-term rental homes, despite nearly 13,000 tourist licences being withdrawn. Similar patterns emerged in Andalusia, Madrid, and the Balearic Islands, all of which saw declines in long-term rental supply even as tourist lets were curtailed.
Only a handful of regions—such as Extremadura and La Rioja—saw modest increases in long-term rentals, but these are small markets with limited impact on the national picture.
So where did the homes go?
That’s the key question—and the data points to an obvious answer: they didn’t flow into the long-term rental market.
Instead, many appear to have shifted into the short-term seasonal rental segment, which sits in a regulatory grey area. These rentals—often aimed at medium-term stays—face fewer restrictions than tourist lets and can still generate attractive returns.
Listings data from Idealista shows that the supply of seasonal rentals surged by 58,000 properties in 2025. Regions like Andalusia, Madrid, and Catalonia led the growth, suggesting a clear migration from one rental model to another.
Other properties may have been withdrawn from the market altogether, left empty, or put up for sale.
What this means for the housing debate
The takeaway is uncomfortable for policymakers: targeting tourist rentals alone doesn’t solve the housing shortage.
Housing supply is shaped by incentives. If landlords face increasing regulation, uncertainty, or lower returns in the long-term rental market, they will look for alternatives—whether that’s seasonal lets, sales, or simply sitting on the asset.
This episode is a reminder that housing policy needs to address the underlying economics, not just the most visible symptoms. Otherwise, supply doesn’t reappear where it’s needed—it simply moves elsewhere.
