Málaga apartments & rentals: how to choose
An apartment makes obvious sense in Málaga: you are near a superb covered market, the beach barrios have almost no hotels, and families get separate bedrooms for less than two hotel rooms. But this is one of the cities where short-term-rental law has moved fastest and hardest in the last two years, and the rules are not a formality — they now decide whether a given flat is allowed to operate at all. Read the box below before you fall in love with a listing.
⚠︎ Book a legal listing
Andalusia regulates tourist apartments under Decreto 28/2016, which requires the owner to file a declaración responsable and be entered in the Registro de Turismo de Andalucía; a legitimate listing shows its registration code, and the Junta runs a public searchable register plus a reporting channel for unregistered lets. Decreto 31/2024 (in force from 22 February 2024) then changed the picture substantially: it renamed these properties viviendas de uso turístico to put the emphasis on the use rather than the building, replaced the old first-occupancy-licence proof with a declaration of compatibility with urban-planning rules, and expressly allowed municipalities to limit, with reasons, new tourist apartments in saturated zones. Málaga acted on that: the Gerencia de Urbanismo’s Instruction 1/2024, applied from 10 June 2024, holds that the city’s PGOU 2011 rules on hospedaje now govern tourist apartments — and paragraph 2 of article 6.4.2 of that plan only permits the use in a building given over wholly or partly to housing where the unit has access and evacuation routes, and general installations (electricity, water, telephone), entirely independent of the rest of the building. In practice a normal flat reached through a shared stairwell in a central Málaga block does not meet that test. The separate power to cap new registrations in saturated areas sits outside that instruction, so whether a specific barrio is restricted is its own question. This is a live, contested area — check the current position with the two official sources below and confirm any listing you like appears in the Andalusian register before you pay.
Rules change — confirm the current requirements: Gerencia de Urbanismo de Málaga — viviendas de uso turístico (Instruction 1/2024), and check the property in the Junta de Andalucía tourism register.
Who a rental suits
Rentals suit families and groups who need separate rooms and a washing machine, anyone staying a week or more who wants to cook what they buy at the Mercado de Atarazanas, and travelers basing themselves in Pedregalejo, El Palo or a Costa del Sol block where hotels are scarce or package-oriented. For a two- or three-night city break in the old town, a hotel is usually simpler and — once the registration question is factored in — no worse value.
Verify before you book
- That the listing displays an Andalusian tourism registration code, and that the property actually appears in the Junta’s public register of tourist establishments. This is the first check, not the last.
- How the flat is entered. Under Málaga’s Instruction 1/2024 the unit needs independent access and independent services from the rest of the building — a listing reached through the neighbours’ shared stairwell is the pattern the city is acting against.
- Whether the barrio has been designated saturated and capped for new tourist-apartment registrations — Decreto 31/2024 gives the city that power, and it is applied area by area. Ask the host directly and cross-check the Gerencia de Urbanismo page.
- Air conditioning in every bedroom, not just the living room — a June-to-September deal-breaker that listings routinely blur.
- Which floor, and whether there is a lift. Old-town buildings are frequently four storeys with no lift and a narrow staircase.
- Night noise in recent reviews, specifically mentioning the month. A flat above a Soho or Merced bar street is a different property in February than in August.
- Exact check-in logistics and whether a key-safe or lockbox is used — some Málaga buildings and communities of owners have moved to prohibit them.
Where to look for rentals
Supply is thickest in the Centro Histórico and Soho, which is precisely where the municipal restrictions bite hardest — expect the legal questions above to matter most there. Ensanche Centro and El Perchel offer ordinary residential apartments at lower prices ten minutes’ walk from the old town. La Malagueta and the Paseo Marítimo have purpose-built holiday blocks with pools. Pedregalejo and El Palo are almost entirely apartment territory, mostly in low-rise buildings a street or two back from the water. Further out along the Cercanías line, Torremolinos, Benalmádena and Fuengirola have decades of holiday-let stock and the loosest availability of all.
Check live rentals & availability
Browse current Málaga rentals on Vrbo — confirm the listing shows an Andalusian registration code before you pay.
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