Calahonda · Rental management
Letting in Calahonda: your block decides, not the entity
Owners in Sitio de Calahonda often assume the conservation entity controls letting. It does not. The entity maintains roads, lighting and drainage across the urbanisation; whether your apartment may take tourist guests is decided by your own building's owners and by the Andalusian tourist-letting rules.
- Municipality
- Mijas
- Province
- Málaga
- Part of
- Mijas
The first thing to fix is which body decides what. Sitio de Calahonda has an Entidad Urbanística de Conservación with legal personality and obligatory membership, which is unusual enough that owners reasonably assume it governs everything inside the perimeter. It governs the shared fabric: roads, lighting, gardens, drainage. It has no vote on whether your flat takes short stays. That question belongs to your comunidad de propietarios, where a resolution on tourist accommodation requires three fifths of owners and quotas under the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal, in force since 3 April 2025 and read on 26 August 2026. Two neighbouring blocks on the same avenue can therefore reach opposite answers.
The second is that the year here has a shape most of this coast does not. A resident population large enough to keep supermarkets, pharmacies and bars trading through February supports a genuine market for stays of several months, and a let beyond two continuous months falls outside the Andalusian tourist decree altogether, as at 26 August 2026. That is not a loophole to be exploited; it is a different product with different paperwork, different insurance and different tenants. Owners who understand it early tend to run a calmer year than owners chasing eight summer weeks in a block full of people doing exactly the same thing.
The Calahonda season and the licence position in Mijas
The regulatory half first, because it is the part that dates. Andalusian tourist letting is governed by Decreto 28/2016, de 2 de febrero, which requires a licencia de ocupación, sets technical standards, takes a declaración responsable, enters the property in the Registro de Turismo de Andalucía and requires the code in advertising. It excludes lets running beyond two continuous months. Separately, a resolution on tourist accommodation in a building under horizontal division needs three fifths of owners and quotas, in force since 3 April 2025. Both sources were read on 26 August 2026, and neither tells you what the municipality will grant. Confirm the Ayuntamiento de Mijas position for your address, in writing, on the day you commit.
The season here divides into three unequal parts. July and August are a beach market served by six named beaches in the municipal Calahonda zone. Spring and autumn are quieter and shorter than in the golf valleys inland, because the only course inside the perimeter is a nine-hole layout. Winter is the distinctive part: a large resident population keeps the urbanisation trading, which supports stays of several months rather than a closed season. Owners who equip for warmth and long stays generally run a fuller year than owners who equip only for August.
| Capacity limits | Decreto 28/2016 caps a whole-home tourist let at fifteen places and four per bedroom, as at 26 August 2026 2026-08-26 |
|---|---|
| Heating and cooling requirement | Fixed cooling is required from May to September and fixed heating from October to April, as at 26 August 2026 2026-08-26 |
| Community decision threshold | Three fifths of owners and quotas decide tourist accommodation, in force since 3 April 2025, as at 26 August 2026 2026-08-26 |
| What the entity maintains | The conservation entity maintains the urbanisation's shared fabric and has no role in tourist licensing 2026-08-26 |
How this runs, step by step
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Step 1
Read your community rules first
Obtain the statutes and the minutes of the last three annual meetings for your building, and look specifically for a resolution on tourist accommodation. Since 3 April 2025 such a resolution needs three fifths of owners and quotas. Whatever was decided applies to you even if you were not there and even if the flat was bought afterwards.
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Step 2
Confirm the municipal position in writing
Specific to Mijas
Municipal positions on tourist letting differ along this coast and are being actively revised, so what matters is the Ayuntamiento de Mijas position for your specific address on the day you commit. Mijas runs its seat in the village with branch offices in Las Lagunas and La Cala. Ask through your lawyer and keep the written answer with the deed.
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Step 3
File the declaration and publish the code
Andalusian tourist letting runs on Decreto 28/2016, as at 26 August 2026: a licencia de ocupación is a prerequisite, a declaración responsable is filed with the tourism authority, entry in the Registro de Turismo de Andalucía follows, and the resulting code has to appear in every advertisement. Advertising without it is the commonest and most avoidable mistake.
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Step 4
Meet the equipment standard
Specific to Mijas
The decree sets a list, and older Calahonda stock frequently fails part of it: fixed heating available from October to April, cooling from May to September, a first-aid kit, complaint sheets and a twenty-four-hour contact number. A seventies apartment with air conditioning but no fixed heat is not compliant, and fitting it is cheaper than a suspended listing.
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Step 5
Plan arrival on the slope
Specific to Mijas
The urbanisation descends from the hillside to the beach road and is confusingly signed, and its streets and lighting are maintained by the conservation entity rather than the municipality. Write directions that assume a tired driver at night, state where a car actually parks, and say plainly whether the beach is a walk down and a climb back. Complaints here are logistical, not decorative.
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Step 6
Choose the season you serve
Decide deliberately whether the home is a summer short-let, a winter long-stay, or a hybrid with a shoulder-season gap. Each has its own furniture, its own cleaning contract and its own pricing rhythm, and trying to be all three is how owners end up with an empty October and a tired flat. Paula's advice is to pick one and equip for it properly.
What a home like this earns is decided by the weeks it can honestly fill rather than by a headline rate. A flat within a short walk of the beach road, with parking and a terrace that works in October, fills a longer year than an identical flat higher up the hill. Against that sit the two annual charges every owner here carries, the management and cleaning contract, and the cost of bringing an older apartment up to the decree's equipment standard. Ask Paula what comparable homes on your specific street are actually achieving, rather than working from a portal's optimistic calendar.
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 Calahonda
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Can the conservation entity stop me letting my Calahonda flat?
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No. Its remit is the shared fabric of Sitio de Calahonda — roads, lighting, gardens, drainage — not the use of individual homes. The body that can restrict tourist letting in your building is your comunidad de propietarios, by a resolution requiring three fifths of owners and quotas. Owners often conflate the two because both send an annual bill, but only one of them has a vote on your guests.
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Why do owners here often prefer winter tenancies to short lets?
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Because the resident population makes it viable. Calahonda's commercial centres, supermarkets and pharmacies trade through February, so a northern European who wants five months of sun has somewhere to live rather than somewhere to visit. A let running beyond two continuous months also sits outside the Andalusian tourist decree, as at 26 August 2026, which changes the paperwork entirely. Fewer changeovers, less wear, and a calendar that does not depend on August.
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What does an older apartment here need fitting before it lets?
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Usually heat. Much of the stock predates current insulation and glazing rules and was fitted with air conditioning alone, but the Andalusian decree requires fixed heating available from October to April as well as cooling from May to September, as at 26 August 2026. Add the smaller items the same list calls for — a first-aid kit, complaint sheets, a twenty-four-hour contact number — and the compliance gap on a 1980s flat is usually a fortnight's work, not a renovation.
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