New Rental Laws in Spain: What Changed in 2023 and 2026

This guide explains what each rule means for tenants and landlords, what stays if the decree is voted down, and where to find the detail. Every point was checked against the Spanish official gazette (the Boletín Oficial del Estado) on 29 October 2026, and the sources are listed at the end.

The new rental laws at a glance

How long a rental contract lasts

A long-term lease on your home runs for at least five years if the landlord is a private person and seven if the landlord is a company, even if the contract says one year: the tenant may renew year by year up to that point, and may leave earlier with notice. After that, if neither side gives notice, the contract continues for up to three more years, a year at a time. Our article on leaving a rental contract early covers the tenant’s side.

The 2023 law added an extra layer in stressed areas: when those periods run out, the tenant can ask for further yearly extensions on the same terms, up to three years.

The October 2026 decree adds an extraordinary extension for contracts that were in force on 8 October 2026 and whose compulsory or tacit extension ends before 31 December 2028. The tenant can ask for up to two more years, a year at a time, on the same terms, provided the rent has been paid on time for the previous eight months. The landlord can refuse only if the two sides agree different terms or a new contract, if the landlord needs the home for themselves or close family and gave notice under the tenancy law, or if they agree a new contract with a rent at least 5 per cent lower.

How much the rent can go up each year

A landlord can raise the rent once a year only if the contract has an update clause. The limit depends on when the contract was signed and when the update falls:

• Contracts signed before 26 May 2023: the update follows the contract, normally the consumer price index (the IPC).
• Contracts signed from 26 May 2023: since 1 January 2025 the update is capped by a new index published every month by the national statistics office (the Instituto Nacional de Estadística), the rent update reference index or IRAV. Its first value, for November 2024, was 2.2 per cent.
• Every home lease, updates due from 8 October 2026 to 31 December 2027: under the decree, if the rent is above the reference price for the area there is no increase at all; otherwise it is what the two sides agree, and without a new agreement no more than 2 per cent.

The caps before that were 2 per cent on updates from the end of March 2022 to the end of 2023 and 3 per cent in 2024. Our article on how much a landlord can raise the rent works through examples.

Stressed areas: where rents are controlled

A region can declare part of its territory a stressed residential market area (a zona de mercado residencial tensionado) for up to three years, extendable a year at a time, when either of two tests is met:

• the average rent or mortgage, plus basic household costs, takes more than 30 per cent of average household income; or
• rents or purchase prices have risen at least three percentage points more than the regional consumer price index over the previous five years.

Inside a stressed area, a new contract on a home that was let in the past five years cannot start above the previous rent, updated by the legal index, with limited exceptions such as recent renovation work. If the landlord is a large owner, the new rent is also capped by the state rental price reference system published by the Ministry of Housing. A large owner (a gran tenedor) is someone with more than ten homes, or more than 1,500 square metres of housing; a region may lower the threshold to five homes inside a stressed area. Since October 2026 a large owner must prove that status with a land registry certificate, and a rental advert must say whether the landlord is one and show the reference price.

By the end of September 2026 more than 300 municipalities had been declared, most of them in Catalonia (including Barcelona), with others in Navarra, the Basque Country, Asturias (including Gijón and Avilés) and Galicia (including A Coruña and Santiago de Compostela). Madrid, Andalucía, Valencia, the Balearics and the Canaries had declared none.

Agency fees, deposits and other costs

Since 26 May 2023 the estate agent’s fee and the cost of drawing up the contract are paid by the landlord, whoever the landlord is. Since October 2026 they cannot be passed on to the tenant directly or indirectly, under any name, and optional extras can be charged only if the tenant asked for them in writing. Our guide to estate agent fees in Spain explains the rule and how to claim a fee back.

The decree also tightened what a tenant can be asked for at signing:

• the legal deposit (the fianza) stays at one month’s rent for a home;
• any extra guarantee is capped at two months’ rent on a home lease of up to five years (seven with a company landlord), and one month on a temporary lease;
• a tenant cannot be required to take out insurance against unpaid rent;
• taxes on the property, such as the IBI, cannot be passed on; general building costs only if the contract says so in writing with the yearly amount.

Our article on getting your deposit back covers the end of the lease.

Rooms and temporary leases

Two loopholes closed in October 2026. Renting a single room, or part of a home, now counts as a home lease under the tenancy law, whether it is your habitual home or a temporary stay; and in a stressed area the rents of all the rooms in a flat together cannot exceed the rent the whole flat could command.

A temporary lease (more than 31 days and, as a rule, no more than twelve months) must state a real, provable reason for the stay, such as work, study or medical treatment away from home, and the landlord carries the burden of proof. Without it, the contract is treated as an ordinary long-term lease from the start, with all the protections above. Genuine holiday lets remain under regional tourism law; our article on the tourist rental law covers them.

Tax: what changed for landlords and tenants

Landlords. A resident landlord pays income tax on net rental income, reduced by a percentage that depends on the contract. For contracts signed from 26 May 2023, the housing law set the reduction at 50 per cent as standard; 90 per cent for a new contract in a stressed area with the rent cut by more than 5 per cent; 70 per cent for a first letting in a stressed area to a tenant aged 18 to 35, or for social and public housing lets; and 60 per cent when the home was renovated in the two years before. Contracts signed before then keep the old 60 per cent.

The October 2026 decree replaces that scale with one that rewards lower rents: up to 100 per cent when a new contract cuts the rent by more than 5 per cent in the conditions it sets, 50 per cent when the rent does not go up, falling to between 40 and 15 per cent as the increase grows past 5 per cent, 80 per cent on a tacit extension at or below the reference price for a landlord who is not a large owner, 70 per cent for lets to public bodies and 60 per cent after renovation. Only the highest applicable reduction counts. Our guide to declaring rental income in Spain covers the returns.

Tenants. The decree brings back a national deduction for rent on your main home: 10 per cent of the rent paid, for taxpayers with a taxable income below €33,007.20. The rent counted is capped at €11,630 a year for incomes up to €23,007.20, so the deduction is worth up to €1,163 a year, and it shrinks between the two income figures. It is not available if you or your family own another home within 50 kilometres. Several regions already give their own rent deductions, which still apply.

Empty homes and the property tax

Town halls may surcharge the annual property tax (the IBI) on homes left permanently empty: up to 50 per cent when a home has been empty for more than two years without good reason and the owner has four or more homes; up to 100 per cent when it has been empty for more than three years; and up to 50 points more when the owner has two or more empty homes in the same town, so up to 150 per cent in all. Good reasons include a work or study move, care or health needs, renovation and a home genuinely on sale or to let. Each town hall decides whether to apply it. Our guide to the IBI property tax explains the tax itself.

What happens if the decree is voted down

A Spanish decree-law lapses if parliament does not confirm it within 30 days of publication. Its predecessor, Real Decreto-ley 26/2026 of 29 September, was rejected on 2 October 2026. If Real Decreto-ley 29/2026 falls too, everything from the 2023 housing law stays in place: stressed areas, the rent index, agency fees on the landlord, the IBI surcharge and the 2023 tax scale. What would go is the October 2026 layer: the 2 per cent cap to 2027, the two-year extraordinary extension, the inclusion of rooms, the stricter rules on temporary leases, the deposit and insurance limits, the new tax scales and the tenants’ deduction. Changes already applied while the decree was in force would need to be looked at case by case. We will update this guide after the vote.

Moving to Spain? Sort your health cover too

If you are renting because you are applying for residence, most Spanish visas ask for private health insurance with no co-payments and no waiting periods. Our page on health insurance for Spanish visas explains which Sanitas plans the consulates accept, with a price in a few seconds.

More on renting in Spain: tenants’ rights when renting in Spain, a guide for landlords and tips for renting long term.

Sources

All checked on 29 October 2026. Boletín Oficial del Estado: Ley 12/2023 por el derecho a la vivienda (articles 3 and 18, final provisions on the tenancy law, income tax and the property tax), Real Decreto-ley 29/2026 of 6 October (articles 3 to 6, fifth, sixth and eleventh final provisions), Ley 29/1994 de Arrendamientos Urbanos (consolidated text in force from 8 October 2026: articles 3, 7, 9, 10, 17, 20 and 36), Ley 35/2006 del IRPF (articles 23.2 and 68) and the Ley Reguladora de las Haciendas Locales (article 72.4). Instituto Nacional de Estadística: resolution of 18 December 2024 on the rent update reference index. Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda: list of declared stressed residential market areas, as at 30 September 2026 (figures as reported from that list).