Alhaurín el Grande · Rental management
Letting in Alhaurín el Grande, where the campo sits outside VFT
One municipality, two letting questions. A house inside the Alhaurín Golf nucleus sits inside a registered nucleus with services; a cortijo out on the campo does not. Decreto 28/2016 reaches only dwellings on land of residential use, so which of the two you own decides whether the tourist-letting regime applies at all.
- Municipality
- Alhaurín el Grande
- Province
- Málaga
- Part of
- Mijas
The distinction is statutory rather than stylistic. Decreto 28/2016 applies the vivienda con fines turísticos regime to dwellings in buildings situated on land of residential use, and expressly excludes rural dwellings governed by the earlier rural-tourism rules. Alhaurín el Grande contains both kinds of address inside one town hall's territory: a registered nucleus built around a golf course, an old centre of casas de pueblo, and a large campo of individually built houses on rustic parcels. Two owners a few kilometres apart can therefore be under two entirely different sets of obligations, with different registers, different ceilings and different inspection standards. Establish which one applies before you photograph a bedroom.
For a campo house, the rural regime is where the detail lives, and its limits are specific. Decreto 20/2002 defines a vivienda turística de alojamiento rural, requires that no more than three dwellings stand in the same building, caps the whole operation at twenty places, and holds it to the infrastructure minimums in its Annex II and at least the basic rural-house service category in its Annex III. Local stock runs straight into those numbers: a cortijo with a converted stable, a main house with a guest annexe, a parcel with two buildings and a shared well. Count the dwellings and the beds before you count the weeks, because the ceiling is a legal one, as at 27 August 2026.
The season here, and the licence position in the municipality
The season shape is the weakest part of any letting case in this town, and it should be stated plainly rather than assumed. There is no beach, no marina and no promenade, so the demand that exists comes from people touring the Guadalhorce valley, walking the sierra, visiting family, or working in the province for a stretch. Holy Week fills the streets, but it fills them mainly with returning families rather than paying guests. Anyone modelling twelve profitable summer weeks here is modelling a coastal town by mistake.
The licence position, as at 27 August 2026, is regional rather than municipal in its substance. Decreto 28/2016 governs the vivienda con fines turísticos on land of residential use; Decreto 20/2002 governs the rural alternative, with a limit of three dwellings in one building and twenty places overall. Neither is a municipal decision, but the Ayuntamiento de Alhaurín el Grande remains the body that licenses works, records occupancy and can adopt its own position later. Paula's rule is to have both the regional route and the municipal answer in writing, dated, before a single booking is taken — not because the rules look unstable, but because a stale certainty is the expensive kind.
| Scope of the tourist-letting regime | Decreto 28/2016 applies to dwellings in buildings on land of residential use, as at 27 August 2026 2026-08-27 |
|---|---|
| The rural letting ceilings | Decreto 20/2002, article 19.1: no more than three dwellings in the same building and no more than twenty places, as at 27 August 2026 2026-08-27 |
| Rural service and infrastructure standards | Decreto 20/2002, article 19.2 with Annex II and Annex III: infrastructure minimums and at least the basic rural-house category, as at 27 August 2026 2026-08-27 |
| A registered nucleus built around golf | Alhaurín Golf is one of the municipality's registered population nuclei 2026-08-27 |
How this runs, step by step
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Step 1
Find which regime reaches the house
Specific to Alhaurín el Grande
Your lawyer's first task is not the calendar, it is the classification. Decreto 28/2016 reaches dwellings on land of residential use and expressly leaves rural dwellings to the earlier rural-tourism decree. In this municipality that line runs between the registered nuclei and the campo, so the answer depends on the parcel rather than on the postcode. Get it in writing. Position as at 27 August 2026.
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Step 2
Measure the house against the ceilings
Specific to Alhaurín el Grande
If the rural regime applies, hold the property against Decreto 20/2002 before anything else. No more than three dwellings in the same building, a maximum of twenty places overall, the infrastructure minimums of Annex II and at least the basic rural-house category of Annex III. A cortijo with an annexe and a converted outbuilding can exceed the dwelling count without anybody noticing until an inspection. Position as at 27 August 2026.
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Step 3
Ask the town hall in writing
Specific to Alhaurín el Grande
Regional decrees set the regime; a municipality can still have a position of its own, and positions change without the decree changing. Paula's practice is to write to the Ayuntamiento de Alhaurín el Grande naming the specific address and asking what it currently requires or restricts, and to keep the reply on file with the date on it. A dated answer is worth more than a confident one.
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Step 4
Decide between a season and a year
Two products exist here and they are not compatible. A short-let operation needs a licence route, a registration code, changeovers and a cleaner. A twelve-month residential tenancy needs a contract, one handover and a tenant who works nearby. Model both honestly against the house you actually own, including the drive an operator would make to reach it, and choose one. Running both badly is the usual outcome of not choosing.
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Step 5
Register before you advertise
Whichever regime applies, entry in the Registro de Turismo de Andalucía comes before the first listing, and the resulting code belongs in the advertisement itself. Note that the rural decree cross-refers to a tourism law that has since been replaced, so ask your lawyer to confirm the current filing route rather than following the decree's own text. Advertising without a code is the easiest infringement to prove.
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Step 6
Equip for arrival and for winter
Guests here arrive by car, on a track, in the dark, after a flight. Solve the last kilometre first: signage, a lit turning space, a gate somebody can open with cold hands, and directions that do not rely on a mapping app finding a rural parcel. Then heat the house properly. The sierra stands to the south and January mornings on this side of it are colder than the coast leads people to expect.
A house here earns like a house, not like a coastal apartment. The strongest position is a twelve-month residential tenancy: one contract, one changeover, a tenant who works in the valley, and a figure that arrives every month rather than in a burst. Short letting can work where the paperwork genuinely allows it and where arrival has been solved, but the earning weeks are fewer than on the shore and the operating cost per week is higher, because everything and everyone has to be driven to the door. Treat any holiday income as an upside you have not counted on.
GUIDE An indication of where this area sits, not a valuation of any particular home. Ask Paula for a figure you can act on.
Questions about this in Alhaurín el Grande
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Can I let a campo house here as holiday accommodation?
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Possibly, but not under the regime most owners assume. Decreto 28/2016 confines the vivienda con fines turísticos to dwellings on land of residential use and leaves rural dwellings to Decreto 20/2002, which sets its own definition, its own ceilings and its own service standards. So the first question is what your parcel is, not what your house looks like. Get a written classification from your lawyer and a written municipal position, both dated, before you buy furniture or take a booking. Position as at 27 August 2026.
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How many guests may a rural letting here legally take?
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Under Decreto 20/2002 a vivienda turística de alojamiento rural is capped at twenty places, and no more than three dwellings may stand in the same building. Those two ceilings decide more Andalusian rural lettings than any marketing question does, because a cortijo with a converted stable and a guest annexe can breach the dwelling limit long before it breaches the bed limit. Count both against the buildings on the parcel, then read Annex II and Annex III, which set the infrastructure minimums and the basic service category. Position as at 27 August 2026.
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Would a twelve-month tenancy suit this house better?
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In most cases here, yes, and the reasons are structural. There is no beach, no marina and no promenade to generate a summer of guests, and every service a short let needs — cleaning, laundry, key handover, maintenance — has to drive out to a house that may sit at the end of a track. A residential tenant solves all of that with one contract and one set of keys, and pays through the winter as well. Paula's read is that short letting here belongs to owners who genuinely enjoy running it, not to owners buying an income.
The same question nearby
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