Licences for tourist-use dwellings in Catalonia after STC 64/2025
Catalan Decree-Law 3/2023 made the operation of tourist-use dwellings in 262 municipalities subject to prior planning permission, with licences valid for five years and renewable and a statutory ceiling of ten tourist-use dwellings for every one hundred inhabitants. STC 64/2025 of 13 March, a judgment of the Spanish Constitutional Court, dismissed the constitutional challenge in its entirety and held that these restrictions delimit the social function of property rather than amounting to an expropriatory deprivation. This new paradigm raises with particular force the question of whether there is a vested right to operate a dwelling as tourist accommodation, and requires the condominium regime, planning law and the right to property in Catalonia to be read together.
1.The regime for tourist-use dwellings in Catalonia before Decree-Law 3/2023
Law 13/2002 on tourism in Catalonia and Decree 75/2020 on tourism in Catalonia configure the “vivienda de uso turístico” —the tourist-use dwelling— as a form of tourist accommodation. A tourist-use dwelling is defined as one made available by its owner, directly or indirectly, to third parties in return for payment, for a seasonal stay, on immediately available terms, and it must be made available as a whole and not room by room. A seasonal stay is delimited as any continuous occupation of thirty-one days or less. Decree 75/2020 further sets a maximum capacity of fifteen guest places per dwelling, requires the dwelling to be duly fitted out, sufficiently furnished and equipped with the necessary appliances and utensils, and obliges the owner or manager to provide an immediate-response telephone number, to guarantee an assistance and maintenance service and to give users a document setting out the owners' association house rules, drafted at least in Catalan, Spanish, English and French. The dwelling must display in a visible place its registration number in the “Registro de Turismo de Cataluña” —the Catalan Tourism Register—, its maximum capacity and the assistance telephone number.
Within this framework, the activity of operating a tourist-use dwelling was regarded, from the tourism standpoint, as an activity subject to an authorising instrument, normally in the form of a prior notification or a “declaración responsable” —a declaration of compliance—, without any specific planning permission, unless the municipal development plan imposed restrictions. Law 5/2020 introduced a special regime for the municipality of Barcelona, allowing the City Council to regulate tourist accommodation activities in tourist-use dwellings and shared homes by means of municipal ordinances, with specific requirements and limits on the duration and validity of the authorisation. In parallel, Law 18/2007 on the right to housing and general planning legislation required tourist use to be compatible with land-use planning and with condominium (“propiedad horizontal”) legislation, but there was no general regional regime of planning permissions for tourist-use dwellings.
2.Decree-Law 3/2023: prior planning permission, quantitative cap and time limit
“Decreto‑ley 3/2023”, the Catalan decree-law on urgent measures concerning the planning regime for tourist-use dwellings, marks a turning point in Catalan regulation. The rule applies initially to 262 municipalities which have problems of access to housing or a risk of upsetting the balance of the urban environment. In those municipalities, the activity of operating a tourist-use dwelling is made subject to obtaining prior planning permission, valid for five years and renewable, and a maximum limit of ten tourist-use dwellings for every one hundred inhabitants is established. The licence takes the form of a planning authorising instrument, distinct from the tourism authorisation, which makes the possibility of putting a dwelling to tourist use conditional on compatibility with the development plan and with the balance of the housing stock.
The Decree-Law provides for a transitional regime for tourist-use dwellings already in existence. The second transitional provision sets a five-year period within which tourist-use dwellings already carrying on the activity must obtain the new planning permission or cease that activity. The rule characterises this transitional regime as compensatory, in the sense that the five-year period, extendable to ten, is conceived as an adaptation period which mitigates the impact of the change in the law on those already operating tourist-use dwellings. No perpetual right to continue the activity is recognised, however, nor is any financial compensation provided for the possible loss of the ability to operate the dwelling as tourist accommodation.
The Decree-Law relies on the exclusive competence of the “Generalitat” —the Catalan regional government— in planning and housing matters, and on the need to protect the urban environment and to safeguard access to housing, consistently with art. 47 of the Constitution and with the social function of property under art. 33.2. The preamble emphasises the exponential growth of tourist-use dwellings, their negative externalities on access to housing and on community life, and the risk of an “exodus” of dwellings from traditional letting to tourist letting following the approval of national Law 12/2023 on the right to housing.
3.STC 64/2025: the social function of property and the absence of expropriation
STC 64/2025 of 13 March, the judgment of the “Tribunal Constitucional” —the Spanish Constitutional Court—, dismisses in its entirety the “recurso de inconstitucionalidad” —the constitutional challenge— brought against Decree-Law 3/2023. The Court examines, among other matters, whether the enabling precondition of extraordinary and urgent need was present, the possible interference with the right to property under art. 33 CE, the possibility of a legislative expropriation and compatibility with the State's competences in economic matters and with local self-government.
As regards the right to property, the Court holds that the rule does not “affect” the right to property in the sense prohibited by art. 86.1 CE, which bars decree-laws from regulating the rights, duties and freedoms set out in Title I of the Constitution. The provisions do not amount to a general regulation of the right to property; they merely govern, on planning grounds, one specific use of a dwelling, namely tourist use. The possibility of putting a dwelling to tourist use does not form part of the essential content of the right to property, which is delimited by statute by reference to its social function, particularly in planning matters. The Court recalls that the social function of property allows the legislature to impose limitations and duties of use, provided that a fair balance between the general interest and individual benefit is respected.
As to the alleged legislative expropriation, the Court rejects the contention that the second transitional provision amounts to a deprivation of property or rights within the meaning of art. 33.3 CE. The authorising instruments previously held for the activity of operating a tourist-use dwelling were not consolidated proprietary rights independent of the planning regime applicable to the dwelling, but authorisations or notifications subject to the legislation in force. The rule merely brings pre-existing situations under the new regulation, without depriving owners of title to their dwellings. The five-year transitional period, extendable to ten, is regarded as a mechanism to mitigate the impact of the change in the law, not as expropriation compensation. There is therefore no legislative expropriation, but rather a delimitation of the social function of property.
The Court also holds that the requirement of prior planning permission and the quantitative cap of ten tourist-use dwellings for every one hundred inhabitants are necessary and proportionate measures to protect the urban environment and to safeguard access to housing, within the scope of the region's competence in planning and housing. The rule is justified by an overriding reason of general interest, the protection of the urban environment, which includes land-use planning in order to safeguard access to housing, and is compatible with Law 20/2013 on safeguarding market unity. The licence requirement is regarded as necessary in order to control effectively the number and distribution of tourist-use dwellings, and the quantitative cap is understood as an instrument of territorial balance.
4.Is there a vested right to operate a dwelling as tourist accommodation?
STC 64/2025 offers an implicit answer to the question of whether there is a vested right to operate a dwelling as tourist accommodation. In holding that the possibility of putting a dwelling to tourist use does not form part of the essential content of the right to property, and that previously held authorising instruments are not consolidated proprietary rights, the Court denies the existence of an absolute vested right to continue the tourist activity indefinitely. Operating a dwelling as tourist accommodation is configured as a use subject to the planning and tourism legislation in force at any given time, which the legislature may amend in the light of the social function of property and the protection of the urban environment.
The five-year transitional regime, extendable to ten, does however recognise a certain expectation of continuity for those already carrying on the activity. During that period, existing tourist-use dwellings may continue to be operated while the application for the new planning permission is being processed, and only if the permission is not obtained within that period must the activity cease. This solution reflects a balance between the need to bring the stock of tourist-use dwellings into line with the new regime and the protection of the legitimate expectations of operators who began the activity under the previous legislation. This is not a vested right in the strong sense, but a temporary protection of the existing situation.
From the standpoint of condominium, the question of vested rights has been raised in similar terms in relation to by-law prohibitions on tourist use. The case law of the “Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Cataluña” —the High Court of Justice of Catalonia, or TSJC— has distinguished between owners who were already carrying on the tourist activity before the by-law prohibition was approved and who opposed the resolution, who are recognised as entitled to continue the activity, and subsequent purchasers, against whom the registered prohibition is fully enforceable. In planning matters, STC 64/2025 adopts a different logic: the new licence requirement and the quantitative cap apply to everyone, with a transitional period, without distinguishing according to whether or not the owner opposed the rule, because what is at issue is a general regulation of land use.
5.The new Catalan paradigm for tourist-use dwellings: planning law, condominium and the right to property
The new Catalan paradigm for tourist-use dwellings is built on three pillars. First, planning law, which through Decree-Law 3/2023 makes the activity subject to prior planning permission, caps the number of tourist-use dwellings by reference to population and makes tourist use conditional on compatibility with the development plan and with the balance of the housing stock. Secondly, condominium, which through the “Código Civil de Cataluña” —the Catalan Civil Code— allows owners' associations to prohibit the tourist use of privately owned units by a four-fifths majority, to register those prohibitions at the “Registro de la Propiedad” —the Land Registry— and to make them enforceable against subsequent purchasers, with a nuanced body of doctrine on vested rights. Thirdly, the right to property, which is delimited by the social function of property on both levels: the planning level, through the licence requirement and the quantitative cap, and the community level, through by-law prohibitions.
STC 64/2025 legitimises the use of planning law as an instrument for controlling the spread of tourist-use dwellings, without regarding this as an expropriation or an unconstitutional interference with the right to property. Catalan civil case law legitimises the use of condominium as a mechanism for protecting community life and the residential character of buildings against the proliferation of tourist uses. Taken as a whole, the result is a model in which operating a dwelling as tourist accommodation is not an absolute vested right, but a use conditioned by planning, tourism and owners' association rules, which may be restricted or even prevented in the light of the general interest.
For legal practitioners, this new paradigm calls for an integrated view. Whether a dwelling in Catalonia may viably be operated as tourist accommodation will depend on the planning compatibility of that use, on obtaining planning permission in the municipalities covered by Decree-Law 3/2023, on compliance with the owners' association by-law prohibitions and on obtaining the tourism authorising instrument and registration in the Tourism Register. The existence of earlier tourism licences or of previous notifications does not in itself guarantee that the activity may continue; it must be analysed in the light of the transitional regime of Decree-Law 3/2023 and of any prohibitions imposed by the owners' association.
6.Conclusions
STC 64/2025 marks a turning point in the regulation of tourist-use dwellings in Catalonia. In upholding Decree-Law 3/2023, the Constitutional Court recognises the legitimacy of making the activity subject to prior planning permission, of capping the number of tourist-use dwellings and of establishing a transitional adaptation regime, as an expression of the social function of property and of the protection of the urban environment. Within this framework there is no absolute vested right to operate a dwelling as tourist accommodation, although a temporary protection of existing situations is recognised.
The new Catalan paradigm for tourist-use dwellings is articulated at the intersection of planning law, condominium and the right to property. Operating a dwelling as tourist accommodation becomes a use conditioned by planning, tourism and owners' association rules, which may be restricted or prevented in the light of the general interest and of community life. For legal practitioners, it is essential to analyse each case by reference to the location of the property, the applicable planning regime, the existence of registered by-law prohibitions and the time of acquisition and of commencement of the activity, as well as the development of constitutional and civil case law, in order to determine the viability and stability of operating dwellings as tourist accommodation in Catalonia.
