Tourist apartment or home with a VT licence: what you are buying on the Costa Blanca

Two different things under one word, «apartment»

The tourism law of the Valencian Community divides all tourist accommodation into types. Two of them matter to us.

A tourist apartment lives inside a complex. If the whole building or the whole complex is given over to tourists, it is a «block of apartments». If more than half of the units in a building work as one tourist business, it is a «conjunto», a set. The main rule for both is single operation. The tourist apartments of a complex work as one business, run by one company that holds rights over each of them. The apartment belongs to you, but it works as part of a small hotel.

A home with a VT licence (vivienda de uso turístico) remains an ordinary home. It is let in full to tourists for up to 10 days to one tenant, and between lets the owner can live in it. Anything longer than 10 days is a different type of rental with its own rules.

Comparison on the main questions

Can you live there and register as a resident?

The law does not allow you to live permanently in a tourist apartment. An apartment that is part of a tourist operation is given over to accommodating tourists, and this is a condition of registering the whole complex. If the conditions of single operation are broken, the complex's registration can be changed or cancelled.

Registration on the municipal roll (empadronamiento) is a separate story. Under the instruction of the National Statistics Institute of 17 February 2020, the padrón records the address where a person actually lives, regardless of disputes over ownership or the state of the property. You must be registered where you actually live. But registration does not change the use of the property: the apartment remains a tourist one.

How many weeks a year you can spend in your apartment yourself is not set by law. It is written in the contract with the company that runs the complex, and it differs from complex to complex. For our projects the terms are explained on the project pages.

A home with a VT licence remains your home: you can live in it, register there and let it to tourists while you are away.

Who lets it and who earns the income

In a tourist complex one company lets the whole complex. The owner hands his apartment over to it by contract, and it accommodates guests with hotel service. Income is shared according to the contract with that company. For example, at Delfin Natura in l'Albir the manager takes 18% of the rent if he brought the guest and 9% if the owner did, plus 13% cleaning per stay. At Riviera 1 in Finestrat full management costs 20% of the income.

An important detail people often learn only after buying: renting the apartment to the operating company carries 21% VAT. It is an obligation, but it is also the route to recovering the VAT paid on the purchase; how this works is explained in the section «How to recover the VAT» below. A non-resident's income is subject to non-resident income tax: 19% for residents of the EU and the European Economic Area, 24% for everyone else. For the months when the apartment is not let, a non-resident pays tax on deemed income, as with any property he owns.

With a VT home you choose: let it through a manager, on your own or not at all. In both cases guests' details are passed to the Spanish Ministry of the Interior: this is an obligation for everyone who accommodates tourists. In a complex the operator does it.

Tax when buying and when selling

A new flat carries 10% VAT because it is a home. A tourist apartment is not a home, so buying one new means the general rate of 21%. Back in 2016 Spain's Supreme Court ruled that the reduced rate requires the property to be usable as a home in law as well, not just by its layout. On top, in both cases, comes 1.4% stamp duty, notary and registry fees.

There is a way not to pay the 21% in cash. If the buyer lets the apartment as a business and takes over part of the developer's mortgage, he charges the tax to himself and deducts it himself (reverse charge, inversión del sujeto pasivo). The tax authority confirmed this in 2023, including for non-residents buying an apartment to let. This is how payment is set up at Delfin Natura.

On resale of a finished apartment or flat, ITP is paid: 9% in the Valencian Community, and if the price is above one million euros, 11% on the whole amount.

How to recover the VAT when buying a tourist apartment

A buyer of a new tourist apartment pays the developer 21% VAT. This money can be recovered, but only if you become a VAT payer in Spain, that is, you let the apartment as a business and charge VAT on the rent. An owner who does not charge VAT on the rent gets nothing back from the tax office.

Why renting out the apartment carries VAT. Ordinary residential letting is exempt from VAT (art. 20.Uno.23º of the VAT law). The law expressly excludes two cases from this exemption, and both concern the tourist apartment:

First, furnished accommodation where the owner undertakes to provide hotel-type services: cleaning, change of linen, meals (letter e'). The tax authority clarifies: cleaning and a linen change only at the guest's arrival and departure are not yet a hotel service, but regular ones, for example once a week, are (ruling V1338-17).

Second, letting a property to someone who will sublet it (letter f'). This is exactly the case of the complex: you let the apartment to the operator, and he accommodates the tourists.

In 2025 the tax authority examined precisely this case: the owner lives in another EU country, and the apartment is let to a Spanish operator. Answer: the rent is subject to VAT at 21%, the owner himself charges it on his invoice to the operator, and the «recipient pays the tax» rule does not apply here (ruling V1435-25). If you let to tourists yourself and provide hotel services, the rate is 10%, as for hotels (art. 91.Uno.2.2º).

Hence the main difference. A flat let as a long-term home lives without VAT: no VAT is charged on the rent, and the VAT on the purchase is not recovered. A tourist apartment let to the operator lives with VAT: you charge 21% on the rent and therefore have the right to deduct the VAT paid on the purchase.

What the buyer needs to do.

1. Before the reservation, agree the arrangement with the operator and show the draft contract to a tax adviser: whether the rent carries VAT or not is decided precisely by the contract.

2. Get a Spanish tax number (NIE) and an electronic signature: VAT returns are filed online.

3. If you live outside the EU, appoint a representative in Spain for VAT matters (art. 164.Uno of the VAT law). An EU resident does not need one.

4. Register with form 036: start of the letting activity and registration as a VAT payer. Better before the purchase or on the day of it: VAT paid before letting starts is deductible if the intention to let is backed by documents, for example the contract with the operator (art. 111).

5. File form 303 every quarter and the annual summary 390 once a year, and issue the operator invoices with 21% VAT.

When the money arrives. The VAT on the purchase is deducted in form 303 for the quarter of the purchase. While the VAT charged on the rent is less than the deduction, the balance carries over to the following quarters, and it can be received as cash at the end of the year, in the fourth-quarter return filed in January. The tax office has six months from filing to refund, after which it pays late-payment interest (art. 115). Monthly refunds are possible through the monthly refund register (REDEME), but then returns are monthly and all invoices go to the SII electronic system: for a single apartment this usually means unnecessary accountant's fees.

Risks.

Ten years of commitment. The deduction on real estate is tied to the year of purchase and the nine following years (art. 107). If in that time the apartment stops being let with VAT, for example you start living in it or let it without VAT, part of the refunded tax will have to be paid back: one tenth for each remaining year.

Selling within those ten years. Resale of a finished apartment is exempt from VAT, the buyer pays ITP, and the seller returns part of the deduction to the treasury for the remaining years. This can be avoided if the buyer is also a business with the right to deduct: then the seller waives the exemption (art. 20.Dos), and the sale goes with VAT, which the buyer charges to himself. This has to be agreed before the sale.

Inspection. The tax authority may check the refund both before paying it and afterwards: ask for the contract with the operator, the invoices, proof that the apartment is really let. Without real letting with VAT, the refund will be withdrawn with interest.

The law is changing. On 8 October 2026 Royal Decree-law 29/2026 came into force. From 1 December 2026, furnished accommodation let to one tenant for no more than 30 nights is subject to 10% VAT even without hotel services; the exception is the owner's own main home. The decree still has to be validated by the Permanent Deputation of Congress, otherwise it will cease to apply. The decree does not change letting the apartment to the operator (letter f'). For homes with a VT licence it may open the right to deduct VAT, but how this will work for homes already bought the tax authority has not yet explained.

Where the law leaves room for interpretation (how the contract with the operator is drafted, when the activity began, how to calculate the deduction with mixed use), the decision is made by a tax adviser on your documents. This article shows you what to ask him.

Neighbours, the town hall and community fees

For a VT home, the main permission comes from the neighbours. Since 3 April 2025, a flat can be let to tourists only with the consent of three fifths of the owners in the building who together hold at least three fifths of the shares. With the same majority the community can raise fees for tourist homes, but by no more than 20%. You also need a town hall report that tourist accommodation is allowed in that area, and the VT registration lasts five years. I wrote in detail about what changed this year in the article on the state register.

In a tourist complex this question does not arise: the tourist regime is set for the whole building when it is created. On the other hand, community fees include hotel services. At Delfin Natura these are a 24-hour reception and security, a lifeguard at the pool, cleaning of common areas and internet.

Can the apartment be turned into a home?

A single unit cannot leave the tourist regime in a block: the whole building works under single operation. In a conjunto it is possible only while more than half of the units remain given over to tourists, and the owner does not decide this alone. Turning the apartment into a home means changing the use of the property, and that is decided by the town hall under its general plan. The owner has no general right to such a change. Buy a tourist apartment as a tourist one, not counting on converting it.

Pros and risks

A tourist apartment suits you if you are buying for income and do not plan to live here. Letting, guests and cleaning are handled by the operator, and the right to let does not depend on a neighbours' vote. And the entry price can be low: at Riviera 1 a one-bedroom apartment costs from 147,312 euros plus VAT according to the price list of 14 May 2026.

Risks: you cannot live there permanently, buying new means 21% instead of 10%, and money paid during construction is not protected by the guarantee of law 38/1999: it covers only homes. That is why, with a tourist apartment off plan, I look especially closely at the payment schedule.

A home with a VT licence suits you if you want both to live and to let. But its tourist future depends on the town hall and the neighbours, and this has to be checked before the reservation.

What it means for your purchase

First decide what matters most to you: your own home by the sea or income without hassle. For a home you need a flat, and if you like, one with a VT licence. For income a tourist apartment fits, and it is worth buying it as a hotel room that belongs to you. Before booking I would read the contract with the operator: how income is shared, how many weeks you stay yourself, who pays for repairs and what it costs to leave the contract.

Projects to let are collected in the selection «What you can let». I will help you choose for your goal, and the price for you will be the same as at the sales office: why you are better off with me than without me.