Madrid's Decree 27/2026: New Tourist Rental Rules

For a decade, registering a tourist rental home in Madrid (vivienda de uso turístico, VUT) was close to a formality. Decree 79/2014 set it up that way, Decree 29/2019 tightened it with a prior technical certificate, and since then several rulings of Madrid’s High Court of Justice have struck down individual pieces of that regime.

Decree 27/2026, of 25 March, is largely the answer to those rulings: it repairs what was annulled and takes the opportunity to rewrite the dwelling’s physical requirements. It was published in the regional gazette (BOCM) on 6 April 2026 and entered into force twenty days later, on 26 April¹.

What it does not do is introduce most of the obligations it gets credited with. It reorders the ones that have existed since 2019 and tightens one specific piece: the table that decides how many guests fit into each square metre.

What Decree 27/2026 changes, and from when

Measured against the wording left by Decree 29/2019², these are the pieces that move in the tourist rental regime.

Two dates order everything else. From 26 April 2026, every new registration is filed under the new requirements. Dwellings already registered before that have until 26 April 2029, and that margin runs out earlier if they undergo a substantial renovation.

What Decree 27/2026 requires: CIVUT, floor area, capacity

The decree asks two different things of the dwelling. That a technician certify a closed list of habitability and safety conditions, and that the usable floor areas match the guest places you want to sell.

What the technician checks before issuing the CIVUT

Article 17 quáter closes the list, and these seven requirements are checked in the dwelling itself, not on a plan³:

• Heating and a supply of cold and hot sanitary water.
• Adequate lighting and ventilation in the bedroom or bedrooms and in the living-dining room, plus a temporary blackout system that shuts out light completely.
• Adequate lighting and ventilation in the kitchen.
• Direct or ducted natural ventilation, or forced ventilation, in the bathroom or bathrooms.
• A hand-held fire extinguisher inside the dwelling, no more than fifteen metres from the exit door.
• Basic emergency signage indicating the exit door.
• An evacuation plan of the building and the dwelling in a visible place.

If any of the seven is missing, the technician cannot issue the certificate. And the CIVUT does not go into a drawer: it must be kept available to the guests staying in the dwelling.

Decree 27/2026 did not create the CIVUT

The certificate was already in article 2.4 of Decree 79/2014, in the wording given to it by Decree 29/2019, with substantially the same definition it has now. A document issued by a qualified technician certifying, after an on-site check, that the dwelling meets the requirements of a specific article: article 17 bis then, article 17 quáter now². The technician’s visit before registration has been mandatory in Madrid for seven years.

“Suitability certificate for a tourist rental dwelling (hereinafter, CIVUT): the document issued by a qualified technician to certify, after carrying out an on-site check, that a tourist rental dwelling meets the requirements set out in article 17 quáter.”

What does change is who may sign it, and not on the region’s own initiative. The decree’s preamble spells it out:

“The High Court of Justice, by ruling 795/2021 of 15 June […], declared null in article 2.4 of Decreto 79/2014 […] the clause stating verbatim that ‘technicians competent to sign that CIVUT shall be those holding the degree of architect or technical architect’, as it introduced requirements amounting to unnecessary limitations that unjustifiably restrict the entry of other operators.”

Ruling 800/2021 of 17 June said the same. The 2026 decree carries that annulment into the text five years later: any qualified technician signs the CIVUT. For the owner the change is one of budget, not of procedure, because with more professionals eligible the certificate has room to get cheaper.

The 25.5 m² figure is not an express minimum floor area

The decree sets no minimum floor area for the dwelling as a whole in any article. It sets two different things. Article 18.1 imposes per-room minimums: twelve usable square metres in bedrooms, 1.5 in bathrooms, ten in the living-dining room (fourteen if it integrates the kitchen) and five in the kitchen⁶. And article 18.4 sets maximum capacity by floor-area band:

“a) For dwellings between twenty-five point five square metres usable and forty square metres usable, up to four people in at least two habitable rooms. b) For each additional twelve square metres usable in at least one more independent habitable room, two more people shall be allowed.”

The practical consequence is what counts. The 2019 wording had a band for “dwellings below 25 m² usable, up to two people”², and Decree 27/2026 deleted it. Below 25.50 m² usable the table now assigns no guest places at all. That is not an express prohibition, but the effect on a small studio is close enough.

The same paragraph adds a detail that matters when you list: two places in convertible beds in the living-dining room are allowed where the floor area and layout permit, but they count towards the dwelling’s maximum capacity. The sofa bed does not add free guest places.

Already-registered dwellings: adaptation deadline in April 2029

Dwellings that had already filed their responsible declaration do not have to close. They have three years from entry into force, until 26 April 2029, to square with articles 10, 14, 17 quáter and 18:

“Tourist apartments and tourist rental dwellings that have started their activity by filing a responsible declaration shall have a period of three years from the decree’s entry into force to adapt to articles 10, 14, 17 quáter and 18 of Decreto 79/2014, of 10 July, and may apply for a waiver of one or more of the requirements imposed, in accordance with article 7 thereof.”

Two consequences follow. First, a substantial renovation of the installations before the deadline exhausts it: from that moment the dwelling must comply. Second, the one almost nobody mentions: during those three years you may apply for a waiver (dispensa) of one or more requirements.

Article 7, also rewritten by this decree, is what sets out how it works⁷:

• The regional tourism directorate decides it with reasons, weighing the establishment’s circumstances as a whole against the minimum requirements.
• Those reasons must rest on technical or compensatory criteria, assessed across the dwelling’s services and conditions as a whole.
• Establishments in buildings protected for their architectural, historical or artistic value are given particular weight.
• It is applied for on the standard form on the electronic office, and before the responsible declaration of commencement of activity.
• The maximum period for notifying an express decision is six months.

Three years sounds generous. For floor-area requirements it is not: either the dwelling has them, or it needs works or a waiver. Some flats will leave the tourist market in 2029, and it pays to know now whether yours is one of them.

Plan Reside: what Madrid city hall requires beyond the CIVUT

Decree 27/2026 is regional and governs tourism. The planning permission that decides whether a flat may be a tourist rental at all comes from the city council, and in Madrid that permission changed before the decree did. On 27 August 2025 the regional Consejo de Gobierno gave final approval to the amendment of Madrid’s General Urban Development Plan for the protection and improvement of residential use⁸, which the city council calls Plan Reside and whose normative text was published on 22 September 2025⁹. It amends nineteen articles of the planning rules and replaces the 2019 Plan Especial de Hospedaje.

Reside splits the city into two areas rather than the previous plan’s three rings:

Independent access is the requirement that rules out most flats in a block:

“Las condiciones generales de acceso independiente para los locales situados en edificios de uso residencial se modifican para que los locales de uso terciario hospedaje requieran siempre acceso independiente.”

Independent access means entry from the street without using the building’s shared circulation. A third-floor flat reached through the communal entrance hall and staircase does not have it, and no amount of building work will give it one.

On top of that, the city council suspended the granting of municipal lodging licences on 25 April 2024 and has not reopened them¹⁰.

Fines in Madrid: the planning route and the tourism route

Two separate enforcement files can land on the same dwelling, opened by two different administrations.

The planning route belongs to the city council, which uses it when it establishes that a dwelling is operating as a tourist rental without planning permission. It applies the Madrid regional land act, which classifies that use as follows:

“Son infracciones graves: […] b) La implantación y el desarrollo de usos incompatibles con la ordenación urbanística aplicable.”

A serious infringement carries a fine of 30,001 to 600,000 euros¹¹. The 30,001 figure is not the typical amount, it is the floor of the range. The procedure the council applies escalates and accumulates: first an order to cease and restore lawfulness, then a final penalty of 30,001 euros, 60,001 if the activity continues and 100,001 if it persists. On the council’s own account it has imposed 92 penalties for establishing tourist use without a licence, 89 of them at 30,001 euros and three at 60,001 for repeat offences, alongside 89 coercive fines of between 1,000 and 3,000 euros¹⁰.

The tourism route belongs to the Comunidad de Madrid, and it predates all of this: Ley 1/1999, the regional tourism act, carries its own table of offences and penalties¹²:

• Minor (article 57): fine of up to 3,000 euros.
• Serious (article 58): fine of 3,001 to 30,000 euros, with suspension or closure of the establishment for up to six months.
• Very serious (article 59): fine of 30,001 to 300,000 euros, with suspension or closure for up to five years, or permanent closure.

In the two upper bands, cancellation of the entry in the Registro de Empresas Turísticas can be added on top, which means losing the very number the platform requires to keep your listing up.

The offence that lands closest to a VUT is article 58.a):

“The alteration or modification, in general, of the conditions contained in the responsible declaration and, in particular, of the minimum requirements underpinning the establishment’s classification, or its capacity, in both cases without having filed a responsible declaration with the tourism administration”

That is where the 2029 scenario lands. A dwelling still selling, after 26 April 2029, more guest places than the article 18.4 table assigns it is offering a capacity its responsible declaration can no longer sustain. That is a serious offence of 3,001 to 30,000 euros, decided by the Comunidad de Madrid, and it runs on its own: it does not depend on the city council opening a planning file or not.

The practical consequence is that the layers are checked separately. You can hold the CIVUT, have filed the responsible declaration and carry the regional register number, and still be committing a serious infringement if the dwelling does not fit the Reside area it falls in.

How to register a Madrid VUT from 2026

Registration is still a responsible declaration, not a prior authorisation. What has changed is the counter, which is now single and electronic:

“Holders of tourist accommodation activity in the tourist rental dwelling category must file with the regional tourism directorate the responsible declaration of commencement of activity […], being obliged to carry out all procedures by electronic means only.”

1. Check the usable floor area room by room, and the guest places the article 18.4 band assigns you.
2. Commission the CIVUT from a qualified technician, who will carry out the on-site check before issuing it.
3. Apply for the article 7 waiver if a requirement falls short, always before you file the declaration.
4. Gather the two homeowners’ association certificates: that the statutes do not prohibit the activity, and that the association has approved it.
5. File the responsible declaration by electronic means with the regional tourism directorate (dirección general competente en materia de Turismo).
6. Keep the CIVUT available to your guests, since it is no longer attached to the filing.
7. Publish your Registro de Empresas Turísticas registration number on your listings.

Registration of the dwelling in that register comes after the declaration is filed¹³. The duty to show that number on the listing does not come from the Madrid decree but from Regulation (EU) 2024/1028. The platform cannot let you offer the property until you have given it the number, and it checks the number’s validity later, randomly and on a regular basis¹⁴. The full text is in the BOCM of 6 April 2026, in Spanish only, like most of this paperwork. For borderline cases (tight floor areas, shared entrances, mixed-use buildings) have a technician review the property before you invest.

What you declare in the VUT responsible declaration

What you file is not a dossier with annexes. Besides the identification details, the establishment’s details (bedrooms, guest places and contact) and the municipal planning permit where there is one, the declaration is a list of statements¹³:

• That you meet every requirement of the decree, or hold a waiver of one, and that you have the paperwork proving it.
• That you hold the certificate stating the building’s constitutive title or the association’s statutes do not expressly prohibit tourist accommodation.
• That you hold the certificate stating the homeowners’ association has approved the owner’s application to run the activity.
• That the dwelling is not subject to any public housing protection regime.
• That you hold the authorisations, licences, notifications and reports required by the applicable sectoral and municipal rules.
• That you hold the CIVUT.

The difference from 2019 is one of risk, not of paperwork. Back then the CIVUT was attached and the administration saw it at registration². Now you sign that you hold it and the check may come later: article 17.4 gives six months to notify the decision declaring the activity cannot continue when the declaration carries inaccuracies, falsehoods or omissions¹³.

How Decree 27/2026 affects you: three typical cases

Not every VUT is in the same boat. Three typical profiles:

• A flat comfortably above the size and capacity thresholds. Commission the CIVUT, gather the association certificates, keep operating. The 2029 deadline leaves room to schedule the technician’s check.
• A studio or flat below 25.5 m² usable. The article 18.4 table assigns it no guest places, and 22 m² will not get there with cosmetic works. The article 7 waiver is the only route provided.
• A flat in a residential block under horizontal property rules. You need the homeowners’ association’s express approval, and the association can also limit or ban the activity by the favourable vote of three fifths of the total number of owners who, in turn, represent three fifths of the participation quotas¹⁵.

In the second case, if the business depends on that property, have a fallback (seasonal letting, residential) ready well before 2029. In the third, the association’s agreement weighs as much as the CIVUT itself and is the first thing to secure.

If you manage several properties across Spain, each region goes its own way. What holds in Madrid does not hold in Galicia or Valencia, and there are territories where guest registration does not even run through SES.HOSPEDAJES. The full map is in tourist licences by region. Catalonia and the Basque Country deserve their own chapter because their guest registration is regional, and in Catalonia the calendar bites harder still: tourist flats in stressed municipalities have an expiry date in November 2028.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need the CIVUT if my VUT was already registered before 2026? Yes, you need the CIVUT even if your VUT was registered before 2026, but not straight away. Already-registered dwellings have until 26 April 2029 to meet all the new requirements, including the CIVUT. The exception is a substantial renovation: major works trigger immediate compliance.

Who can issue the CIVUT? The CIVUT can be issued by any qualified technician, after an on-site check of the dwelling. The decree did not create the certificate, which came from Decree 29/2019: what it did was remove from the text the reservation to architects and technical architects, which Madrid’s High Court of Justice had annulled back in 2021.

Does Decree 27/2026 set a minimum floor area for Madrid tourist rentals? Decree 27/2026 sets no express minimum floor area for the dwelling as a whole. It sets per-room minimums in article 18.1: twelve usable square metres in bedrooms, 1.5 in bathrooms, ten in the living-dining room and five in the kitchen. And it sets a capacity table, in article 18.4, that starts at 25.50 m² usable. The 2019 wording did have a band of up to two guests for dwellings under 25 m², and that band has been deleted, so below 25.5 m² usable the table assigns no guest places at all.

My studio is below 25.5 m². Can I keep it as a VUT? A studio below 25.5 m² usable finds no guest places in the capacity table, so in practice it cannot keep operating once the adaptation period ends. The only route provided is the article 7 waiver. You apply to the regional tourism directorate before the responsible declaration, and it is decided with reasons within a maximum of six months. It gives particular weight to buildings protected for their architectural, historical or artistic value.

Does the decree change anything about my guest registration? No, the decree changes nothing about your guest registration: Decree 27/2026 governs the dwelling’s authorisation only. The RD 933/2021 guest report is a separate state obligation that stays the same: every booking, each guest’s data, submitted to SES.HOSPEDAJES within 24 hours.

What happens if I list without a registration number? If you list without a valid registration number, the platforms (Airbnb, Booking and the rest) are required to remove the listing. No current registration means no legal marketing, with or without bookings in progress.

What Decree 27/2026 does not change: your guest reports

Decree 27/2026 regulates the dwelling’s authorisation, not guest registration. Madrid is SES.HOSPEDAJES territory: every booking still generates a guest report due to the Interior Ministry within 24 hours, with fines for omission. They are two independent obligations: the CIVUT is obtained once; guest reports repeat with every guest.

That second part is what RegistroViajero automates for Madrid operators: digital check-in in nine languages, validation of the data RD 933/2021 requires, and automatic submission to SES.HOSPEDAJES. The decree may ask you for works or certificates once; guest reports ask every day.