In Spain more than 40,000 tourist apartments have ‘disappeared’. The question is whether we are facing the end of their bubble

The tourist rental business is no longer what was. Or that at least is the message that the real estate market seems to be sending, according to recent reports published by two organizations that (from different perspectives) know the sector well: the Bank of Spain and Fotocasa. The first warns in his annual report 2025, published just a few weeks ago, of the departure of tens of thousands of homes from the vacation rental market. The second, Fotocasa, speak directly of a “puncture” of the business, with a “flight of owners”.

The big question is… Why?

Cycle change? It is still too early to talk about a change of cycle, but the latest data from Fotocasa Research and the Bank of Spain (BE) suggest that something is changing in the country’s vacation rental market.

Although tourism still booming and it’s not crazy that Spain reaches this year for the first time the 100 million of foreign visitors, the market is emitting signals that suggest that renting an apartment on Airbnb, Booking, Vrbo or Holidu is no longer the business it was a couple of years ago. Interest in buying apartments for tourist rental is falling and the number of landlords who decide to put their homes up for sale to leave that market increases.

What do the figures say? That something is moving in the sector. Still very timid, but perceptible. The percentage of buyers who acknowledge that they are looking for a home to use as a vacation rental is reducing little by little. If in 2024 they represented 3.4%, in 2025 that percentage was reduced to 3% and the latest survey, corresponding to the first semester, places it at 2.8%.

“Although the tourist modality continues to represent 3% of purchase operations linked to a second residence or directly to investment, the trend shows a progressive reduction in interest in this model,” comment the platform, which sees a loss of “attractiveness” of the sector.

Is it the only indicator? No. The market also suffers at the other end, that of the sellers. Fotocasa Research has detected an increase in the number of landlords dedicated to tourist rentals who are trying to get rid of their homes. That is to say, there are fewer people interested in entering the vacation rental market… but also more people who are already in it and want to leave.

The trend is once again tenuous, but eloquent. In 2024, 1.8% of the owners who went to real estate agencies to sell their homes dedicated them to vacation rentals. In 2025 the percentage was very similar (1.6%), but this year it has risen to 3.1%. “It represents practically doubling the weight recorded two years before and shows that more and more owners are choosing to abandon the tourist rental segment,” they explain from Fotocasa.

And what does the Bank of Spain say? In your latest annual reportpublished a few weeks ago, the BE confirms that vacation rentals are deflating. To be more specific, its technicians documented an increase in the number of tourist apartments between 2021 and 2024, which placed the total stock at 400,000 homes that last year. In 2025, however. The average was 355,000 homes.

The latest data from the INE show that in May they were advertised on online platforms in Spain 341,001 homes tourist, also far from the 381,837 registered a year before. That means between 40,000 and 50,000 fewer homes on the market. In some regions thousands of properties have been erased in recent years or even more than 10,000, such as happens in Alicante.

What is the reason? For María Matos, spokesperson for Fotocasa, there is little mystery. If vacation rentals “are losing part of the attractiveness they had in recent years” it is mainly due to three factors. First, because investors are “reorienting” their strategies, looking for “stable alternatives.” Second, vacation rentals have lost profitability compared to a few years ago. And third (but not least), the changes at the regulatory level.

“It responds to a context of greater regulatory uncertainty in which the regulations have been modified throughout the year,” comment Matos. The truth is that in recent years both the central government and some regional and municipal administrations have taken steps to prevent the flight of housing from residential to vacation rentals and, in the process, alleviate the rise in rents.

Has it changed that much? Yes. BE himself recognize that “regulatory limitations” on vacation rentals have taken their toll on the market, as has the transfer of homes to the seasonal rental market. It comes with taking a look at the newspaper archive to find town councils and autonomous communities that in recent years have applied moratoriums to the granting of new tourist rental licenses or toughened its regulations.

The most forceful change was applied last year by the Government when it activated a single short-term rental registry, although this measure received a blow of the Supreme Court a few months ago. Another important regulatory change is that, since April 2025reinforces the weight of neighborhood communities when deciding whether or not they can operate housing for tourist use in their buildings.

Will it be noticed in the market? Just because tourist apartments lose strength in the market does not mean that the price of residential rentals will go down. The B.C. remember that, in general, its weight is limited in the Spanish market.

According to their calculations, vacation homes represent 1.5% of the total housing stock, although that percentage has fine print. If we talk about the rental market, its relative weight rises to 10% and if we refer to specific regions with strong tourist demand, that footprint skyrockets.

In the urban area of ​​Malaga it rises at 28.9% of the rental market, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria at 12.9% and in Seville at 12.1%. There are specific neighborhoods in which vacation rentals represent more than 20% of the total offer or even almost 45%, as occurs in the tourist center of Seville or Malaga.

Images | Kristijan Arsov (Unsplash), Alain Rouiller (Unsplash)

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