Regulations on Tourist Flats in Catalonia 2022

If you have an empty flat and are thinking it's time to make it profitable, you'll be interested to know what the regulations for tourist apartments in Catalonia say. Furthermore, as the legislation depends on the city council, below you'll find the ordinance for tourist flats in Barcelona and how you can obtain your license in 2022.

Complying with the law is essential if you want to consciously rent your property and, incidentally, save yourself a few euros in fines that you won't receive.

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Regulations for tourist rentals in Catalonia

The legislation you need to read more carefully than a shampoo bottle when you go to the bathroom and have left your phone is Decree 159/2012 (you can consult it in PDF here). It applies whether you rent out your property yourself or if you transfer the operation of your property to an agency and you simply receive the benefits.

What requirements must tourist apartments in Catalonia meet?

• You must rent your property at least twice a year.
• The rental period cannot exceed 31 consecutive days for the same tenant.
• The property must have a certificate of habitability.
• It must not have more tenants than those established by the certificate of habitability.
• It must have sufficient furniture and fittings to function as accommodation and, of course, must be in good hygienic conditions.

Now comes the interesting point of the tourist apartment regulations in Catalonia: how to obtain your license. 

How to obtain a tourist rental license in Catalonia

If you meet the above requirements, congratulations, you have everything you need to apply for the legalisation of your tourist rental in Catalonia.

According to the tourist apartment regulations in Catalonia, you must submit a notification to the City Council of the municipality where the property is located, informing them that you are going to start renting your flat as a tourist house.

The City Council will notify the Catalonia Tourism Register (RTC for short), which is responsible for verifying that the property meets all requirements and for granting you the license to carry out this activity completely legally.

In addition to obtaining a tourist rental license, in Catalonia, there are strict limits regarding the noise your guests can make – in reality, the same as any other neighbour.

In our information centre on tourist accommodation legislation you can find more details on regulations in other cities.

What is the purpose of a tourist rental license in Catalonia?

First and foremost, to avoid sanctions, which is no small thing. Furthermore, once you obtain your license number, you can include it in your advertisements, which gives confidence to those interested in renting the flat.

Moreover, once the RTC has approved your property, it includes you on the website of tourist establishments and on the Catalonia website.

As you have seen, obtaining the license is not complicated at all. If you have worked on your property to ensure it is in optimal conditions to receive tenants, there is no reason why the RTC should not grant you the license.

It is a simple process that you can also complete very quickly, so we recommend that you don't take risks and save yourself trouble. Process your license and enjoy the peace of mind of renting your holiday home fully legally.

Regulations for tourist flats in Barcelona: everything you need to know

Every master has his own method and each Autonomous Community has its own peculiarities regarding tourist rental regulations, and Catalonia was not going to be an exception.

In addition to all the requirements we have seen, it is necessary for your tourist accommodation to be registered in the Catalonia Tourism Register. But in this case, you can forget about carrying papers from one place to another only to be told that you're missing some unknown form when they finally attend to you. All of that is a thing of the past; since 2017, all these procedures are now carried out exclusively online.

The good news is that, for once, you won't have to pay fees. So, don't be lazy and register as soon as possible to legalize your tourist accommodation. What's more, in many cases, it is the City Council itself that officially communicates the granting of the license to the Register, so the Catalonia Tourism Register proceeds directly to the registration and informs the interested party of the registration number (NIRC).

The NIRC must appear in all advertisements where the property is marketed. This is a way to provide security both to clients and to other individuals and companies that also own tourist accommodation.

PEUAT and zoning

PEUAT (Special Urban Plan for Tourist Accommodation) might sound like gibberish to you, but if you're going to fully enter this business, you should know that it is a fundamental regulation for tourist flats in Barcelona. You can consult all information about the PEUAT on the city council website.

It has been in force since 2017 and its objective is to regulate tourist activity, so that coexistence between neighbours, tourists and owners of tourist properties is as peaceful as possible.

But the truth is that landlords with tourist properties don't like this rule much, as it has introduced the phenomenon known as “zero growth”. To do this, it has divided the city into four zones and regulated the concentration of tourist establishments.

Zone 1 is the one with the highest volume of tourist properties (exceeding 5000). The Barcelona City Council has understood that this number is excessive, and therefore advocates for a decrease. How? By not granting more licenses to holiday homes in this area or expanding the capacity of those already registered.

As you can imagine, this affects some of the most touristy neighbourhoods, such as Hostafrancs, Eixample, Ciutat Vella, Vila Olímpica and Rambla, among others.

Zone 2 is what is known as a maintenance zone. Here, the purpose is to maintain the current number of available places, so if an apartment with 5 accommodation places is decommissioned, a license will be granted to another property under similar conditions.

Affected neighbourhoods include Les Corts, Sants, Diagonal, Fort Pienc and Baix Guinardó, among others.

In Zone 3, conditions are a little more special. An accommodation can be registered if there is a vacancy in this same zone, in Zone 1 (except Ciutat Vella), or even in Zone 2, without exceeding 387 dwellings in any case.

This affects regions such as La Verneda, Nou Barris, Sarrià, and part of Les Corts, as well as Vallcarca, Horta, La Sagrera, and El Guinardó.

Zone 4 is made up of the neighbourhoods of La Marina del Prat Vermell, La Sagrera, and 22 Nord, where the creation of new tourist accommodation properties is absolutely prohibited.

And to all this we must add the Specific Treatment Areas (ATE), which are those that have some special characteristics. These are basically the historic cases of Sants, Les Corts, Horta, and Sant Andreu, among others. Here, the rules of Zones 1 and 2 apply as appropriate.

How to apply for registration?

If you wish to obtain the license that allows you to carry out tourist rental activities legally, you must have a favourable report from the PEUAT. You can submit the application online or in person, by making an appointment at the Barcelona City Council.

When submitting the application, you must prove that:

• The property meets all the requirements established in urban planning regulations.
• The house is not occupied.
• It has a certificate of habitability.
• It is in an area where the PEUAT allows the creation of new tourist dwellings.
• The house does not occupy the ground floor of a building.
• It has not been used as a dwelling since 1 June 2015.
• The building has a license to be a tourist use dwelling and other compatible uses.

Documents to include

Once you finally verify that you meet all the requirements and can proceed with your project, it's time to prepare the documentation. This is crucial; you know how fond Public Administration is of bureaucracy and paperwork, if you're missing anything, you'll have to come back another day, so double-check that you have everything.

The documents you need are the following:

• The duly completed and signed license application. Read the instructions carefully to avoid any errors.
• Photocopy of the applicant's DNI, NIE, or passport.
• If it is a legal entity acting through a representative, a copy of the power of representation must also be submitted.
• Guarantee of compliance with the First Additional Provision of the PEUAT if the property is in Ciutat Vella or with sections 1 to 4 in the other districts. That is, that you have ensured that a new tourist dwelling can be located in your area.
• If it is a building, also present the authorisation for modification of use or activity in order to dedicate all dwellings to tourist dwelling activity or compatible uses.
• Urban planning license number of the building as tourist use dwelling.
• Simple note from the Property Register evidencing the registration of the License which shows that the building can function as a VUT.

And that's it! Finally, you have everything ready, you comply with the Airbnb flat ordinance in Barcelona, and you can start receiving guests.