Malaga city has approved an immediate freeze on new tourist accommodation across the entire municipality for the next three years.
‘There will not be one more for three years,’ mayor Francisco de la Torre declared ahead of Thursday’s local government meeting, where the measure will be formally adopted.
It will take effect about a week later, once published in the Official Gazette of the Province.
The move comes as Malaga begins rewriting its 2011 General Urban Development Plan to rein in the explosion of tourist flats.
While the changes are drafted, all new registrations are banned under a clause in Andalusian Decree Law 1/2025 citing ‘compelling reasons of general interest.’
The city council has already tried twice to slow the boom: in June 2024, it barred tourist flats without separate entrances and services from the building; in January, it banned them outright in 43 overcrowded neighbourhoods where they made up more than 8% of homes.
But the mayor admits those measures ‘didn’t slow things as much as we’d like.’
De la Torre said the pause is needed to ‘calmly but intensively’ study what’s best for the city.
Experts from planning, housing, tourism and public works – along with private sector voices – will be involved, and he even invited the press to chip in ideas.
Despite slowing growth compared to the rest of the province, Malaga’s stock of tourist lets still rose 3.8% this year, versus 10.5% provincially and 11.5% across Andalucia.
The moratorium is a precautionary measure and does not require a plenary vote, but the eventual plan changes will.
‘We want to be at the forefront of solving a problem hitting cities everywhere,’ de la Torre said.
Read more Andalucia news at the Spanish Eye.
