What changes for owners and guests in Maspalomas?
The Consejería de Turismo y Empleo (the Canary Islands tourism ministry, led by the PP) has announced a new decree. The government wants to pass it before the municipal and regional elections in May 2027, but no firm deadline has been published.
Reports so far name no change for holidaymakers and tenants. Anyone who has booked a stay in an apartment complex in the south does not need to do anything for now.
Owners who live in their own flat would pay only the ordinary community costs of the building. To qualify, they must prove that residential use began before January 2017.
The Consejería has not yet said what that proof should look like. Affected owners should gather papers showing residential use before 2017 and wait for the published text.
Who will pay what in a holiday complex?
The decree would replace the term unidad de explotación (operating unit) with unidad de operaciones. It would also standardise how owners share the running costs of a holiday complex.
Owners who keep letting to tourists would pay directly into the running costs. According to the announcement, these include reception, cleaning and restaurant staff.
Anyone who newly brings a flat into a holiday complex pays the full community and service costs. The same rule is to apply to the regulated vivienda vacacional (holiday home), following the framework of 13 December 2025.
The Consejería has published no figures. So it is not yet possible to say whether an owner will pay more or less than today.
Why have owners and the government been arguing for years?
The dispute goes back to the tourism law of 1995 and sharpened in 2013 with the principle of exclusively tourist use. According to reports, a 2013 rule banned living in tourist zones and required owners to hand their flat to an operator for at least six months.
On 27 February 2025 the Consejería de Turismo suspended penalties against owners who live in their apartments. The Ayuntamiento (town hall) of San Bartolomé de Tirajana had asked for this, and more than 3,000 files were affected.
In April 2026 the tourism consejera, Jéssica de León, told the Parliament that 176 cases were still open. Of these, 110 had an appeal (recurso de alzada) and 66 did not.
De León said the 2013 law forbids suspending the cases. Esther González of Nueva Canarias called the 2025 decree a “fracaso” (failure) and pointed to a fine of 2,000 euros.
The platform of affected owners puts their number at 70,000. That is the platform's own estimate, not an official figure.
Who decides, and what already applies?
The town hall of San Bartolomé de Tirajana, which covers Maspalomas, handles urban planning and local bylaws. The Cabildo de Gran Canaria (the island government) steers tourism planning and the principle of gestión unificada, where one operator runs a whole tourist building.
The Consejería says it is working with the municipalities to adapt bylaws and urban plans. It names San Bartolomé de Tirajana and, it says, soon Mogán.
Law 6/2025 of 10 December on the sustainable tourist use of homes appeared on 23 December 2025 in the BOE (the Spanish state gazette). It requires prior planning permission for tourist use in residential buildings, and that permission is meant to be the exception.
At least 90% of a building must stay in residential use, and 80% on the green islands of La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro. Whether the law contains a transitional rule for apartments in holiday complexes could not be established.
The Canary statistics office ISTAC counted 39,678 holiday homes in the islands in July 2026 in its experimental statistics, 15% fewer than a year earlier. Gran Canaria accounted for 21% of the supply, but the report gave no absolute figure.
What is still open, and what follows until May 2027?
The decree number, its date in the BOC and its legal form are all open. Reports speak sometimes of a decreto and sometimes of a decreto ley (a decree with the force of law).
In August 2026 the Consejería called a draft decree with the force of law on tourist land use only a working draft. Whether it matches the text now announced has not been confirmed.
Doris Borrego, president of Ascav, wants owners to be fully free to let themselves or to hire an operator. Maribé Doreste, president of PALT, wants to keep the non-tourist status.
In September 2026 the PSOE accused de León of leaking a draft. Deputy Gustavo Santana called her “irresponsable” (irresponsible) and demanded her resignation.
Whether the penalty proceedings pause in the meantime is unclear, and according to the report they continue. Approval is expected before the May 2027 election, and the binding text appears only with publication in the BOC.