Spain’s government has published a decree that will end the VAT exemption on most short-term furnished rentals, bringing a 10% value-added tax to a large share of the country’s Airbnb-style tourist lets from December 1, 2026 — the second attempt at the same measure after an earlier version was voted down.
The change is set out in Real Decreto-ley 29/2026, dated October 6, 2026 and published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado (BOE), Spain’s official gazette, on October 7. Under Article 7 of the decree, furnished rentals are taxed at the reduced 10% VAT rate whenever a single tenant’s stay runs 30 nights or fewer and the property is not the landlord’s own habitual residence — a category of letting that had generally sat outside VAT altogether until now. The rate applies from December 1, 2026. Separately, Article 8 gives town councils in officially designated “stressed housing market” zones the option — not the obligation — to add a surcharge to the local property tax (IBI) on homes used for tourist accommodation: up to 50% for a single property, rising to 100% for owners of two or more such properties and 150% for owners of four or more, provided the local council adopts its own ordinance to apply it.
For anyone renting out a Spanish property short-term to tourists, the practical effect is twofold: a new 10% VAT charge on qualifying short lets from December, and — only in specific municipalities that both carry the “stressed zone” designation and choose to act on it — a potentially steep added property-tax bill tied to how many tourist-use properties the same owner holds.
This is a repeat attempt. According to the Majorca Daily Bulletin, the new decree “replaces legislation that Congress rejected the previous week” — an earlier housing decree, Real Decreto-ley 26/2026, which had briefly introduced the same VAT change before the Congress of Deputies voted it down, with its repeal formally published in the BOE on October 2. Like any Spanish decreto-ley, the reissued version still requires validation by Congress’s Permanent Deputation within one month of being issued; as of this report, no source has confirmed that vote has taken place. The measure arrives against a backdrop of record tourism and a deepening housing-affordability dispute: Spain, the world’s second most-visited country after France, received 70.4 million foreign visitors in the first eight months of 2026, including 12.3 million in August alone, and the government has said tourist accommodation accounts for roughly 10% of the national rental market.
References
Boletín Oficial del Estado – Real Decreto-ley 29/2026, de 6 de octubre / Majorca Daily Bulletin – Tourist Rentals in Spain Face New VAT From December 2026 / Euro Weekly News – Spain Ends VAT Exemption for Thousands of Holiday Rentals From December 1
