Renting by the month in Malaga without a holiday-let licence: how seasonal contracts of more than 2 months work, who the tenants are, the trade-offs versus holiday letting and how to avoid contract requalification.
Malaga stopped accepting new holiday-let registrations across the whole city on 23 August 2025. Before that, 43 saturated neighbourhoods were already closed to new tourist flats, and from 25 July 2026 the city also blocks new tourist accommodation on residential land. If you own a flat in Malaga and never obtained a VUT licence, the short-term route is closed for now.
That does not mean your flat has to sit empty, or that a standard long lease is your only option. Spanish law has always allowed a middle path: the mid-term or seasonal let, a furnished rental of more than 2 months that falls outside Andalusia's tourist regulations entirely. No VUT licence, no guest registration, no moratorium.
This guide explains how mid-term letting works, who rents this way, how it compares with holiday letting, and the one legal risk you need to manage: a badly drafted contract. If you want the regulatory picture first, start with our guide to Malaga's holiday rental rules.
What a mid-term let is under Spanish law
Spanish tenancy law distinguishes between renting someone their permanent home and renting them a place for a specific, temporary need. The second category is the seasonal let, "arrendamiento de temporada". The tenant lives in your flat for some months, but their permanent residence is elsewhere. That distinction is the legal foundation of the whole model.
In Andalusia, the tourist rules only apply to short stays. Once a contract runs for more than 2 months, it sits outside the tourist framework: no licence, no plaque by the door, no police guest registry. What you need instead is a properly drafted seasonal contract with a documented reason for the stay: a work assignment, a course, renovation works at the tenant's own home.
Who rents by the month in Malaga
Mid-term tenants are not tourists. They arrive with a laptop and a suitcase, and they need a home that works from day one. The profiles we see most: digital nomads and remote workers spending a season in the city; employees relocated by their companies for projects or temporary cover; families renting while their own home is being renovated; postgraduate students, researchers and medical staff on placements.
These tenants pay for reliability: fast wifi, a desk, a washing machine, a fully equipped kitchen and a manager who answers. They also tend to look after the property, because for those months it is their home.
Mid-term versus holiday letting
The advantages are practical. You need no licence, so the moratorium is irrelevant to you. Turnover drops from days to months, which means fewer cleanings, less wear and fewer incidents. Income is steadier across the year instead of peaking in summer. And relations with the building improve, which matters now that Spanish communities of owners can veto new tourist flats by a 3/5 vote, a rule in force since 3 April 2025.
The trade-offs are real too. In high-demand areas, a well-run holiday let usually bills more than the same flat rented by the month. We will not give you a magic percentage, because it depends on the flat, the area and the season. Tenant selection matters more: a bad guest is gone in a weekend, a bad tenant stays for months. And on Spanish income tax there is no advantage over holiday letting: the reduction reserved for primary-residence leases, which runs from 50 to 90%, applies to neither.
If your priority is maximum peace of mind rather than maximum income, look at a long-stay rental instead.
The requalification risk: get the contract right
The legal risk in mid-term letting is not the tourist rules. It is the contract. If the agreement does not state a genuine temporary cause, or the tenant turns the flat into their permanent home, a Spanish court can requalify it as a standard housing lease. That gives the tenant mandatory extensions, caps rent updates and makes recovering the property far slower.
The mistakes that cause it are avoidable: using a template that just says "seasonal" in the title, asking for no documents that prove the temporary cause, renewing the same tenant again and again until the season stops being credible, or letting the tenant register the flat as their official address, the "empadronamiento". Handled with rigour from the first contract, mid-term letting is a stable model.
Managing a mid-term let from abroad
For owners who live outside Spain, this is where a local manager earns their fee. Everything in a mid-term let happens on the ground: verifying the tenant's identity, solvency and reason for the stay, drafting a contract that will hold up, check-in, check-out and inventory, maintenance and incidents in between.
AltaHomes runs mid-term lets with the same operation behind our holiday rentals, where we have hosted more than 6,000 guests and hold Superhost status with 4.9 out of 5 across more than 750 reviews on 3 platforms. You get monthly pricing tuned to real demand, a vetted tenant, a compliant contract and a single point of contact in English, wherever you live. If you hold a VUT licence, we can combine both models on one calendar: holiday lets when demand pays for them, mid-term the rest of the year. Our published commission runs from 15 to 25% depending on the service level. See how we work on our property management page and ask for a proposal for your flat.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need any licence for a mid-term let in Malaga?
No. Contracts of more than 2 months fall outside Andalusia's tourist regulations, so no VUT registration is required and Malaga's moratorium does not affect you. This is the standard route for owners who never obtained a licence or whose building sits in one of the vetoed neighbourhoods.
Can I really run this from abroad?
Yes, if someone local handles the contract, the vetting and the property itself. The parts that fail at a distance are tenant verification and incident response, and those are exactly what a manager covers. With AltaHomes, reporting and payments reach you wherever you are.
How is mid-term rental income taxed for non-residents?
Rental income from a Spanish property is taxable in Spain even if you live abroad. Neither holiday lets nor mid-term lets qualify for the reduction Spanish law grants to primary-residence leases, which runs from 50 to 90%. What you can deduct depends on your country of residence, so speak to a tax adviser who handles non-resident landlords before you choose a model.
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