Las Lagunas de Mijas · Rental management

Letting in Las Lagunas under the LAU, not the tourist decree

Las Lagunas lets to residents, so the governing text is Ley 29/1994 rather than the Andalusian tourist decree. Mijas counts 2,131 hotel places across the municipality and this district has no beach of its own. What you are letting here is a twelve-month home to a working household.

Municipality
Mijas
Province
Málaga
Part of
Mijas

The first decision is which statute you are operating under, and in this district it is almost always the Ley de Arrendamientos Urbanos. Ley 29/1994 excludes from its scope a furnished dwelling that is marketed through tourist channels and subject to its own sectoral rules, which is the doorway into Decreto 28/2016; everything else it keeps. The consequence buyers underestimate is duration. Where the agreed term is shorter, article 9 extends the contract in annual steps until it has run five years, or seven where the landlord is a legal person. You are not letting a flat for a season here. You are committing it, and the commitment is the tenant's to end, not yours.

The second decision is whose covenant you are accepting. Mijas registered 27,955 contracts of employment in 2025, of which 16,990 were temporary and 10,947 permanent, and this is the district where a good share of those people live: the municipality concentrates its industrial and commercial zones here rather than on the coastal strip. That is a deep and constant tenant pool, and it is also a reminder that a majority of the contracts behind your rent are fixed-term. Read the employment paperwork as carefully as the references, and treat a permanent contract, a guarantor or a longer deposit as the three levers you actually have.

Why this district lets by the year, and where the tourist regime stops

Start with the line between the two regimes, because it is the part owners get wrong. As at 27 August 2026, Ley 29/1994 governs residential tenancies and expressly pushes out of its scope a furnished dwelling marketed through tourist channels and subject to sectoral tourism rules; that dwelling lands instead under Decreto 28/2016, with its own declaración responsable, its own register and its own advertising code. Since 3 April 2025 a building under horizontal division also needs a three-fifths vote of owners and quotas before tourist letting can begin. Sources read on 27 August 2026, and none of them answers what a specific town hall will permit at a specific address.

The demand side is where this district separates from the rest of the municipality. Mijas counted 33,623 principal family dwellings in 2021 and registered 27,955 contracts of employment in 2025, and Las Lagunas is where a substantial part of that working population is housed. There is no season to time, no changeover rota and no empty February; there is also no peak, so the return is built from continuous occupancy rather than from a good August. The real risks are correspondingly different. Not a quiet winter, but a tenant whose fixed-term contract ends, a void of a month between tenancies, and a flat that has been let for six years without anybody repainting it.

Key facts about Las Lagunas de Mijas
Minimum duration of a tenancy Article 9 of Ley 29/1994 extends a shorter agreed term annually until the tenancy reaches five years, or seven where the landlord is a legal person, as at 27 August 2026 2026-08-27
The tacit extension afterwards Article 10 adds an obligatory extension of up to three further years unless either party gives the required notice, as at 27 August 2026 2026-08-27
Where the tenancy law stops Article 5.e excludes a furnished dwelling marketed through tourist channels and subject to its own sectoral rules, as at 27 August 2026 2026-08-27
Hotel capacity in the municipality Ten hotels with 2,131 places across Mijas in 2025 2026-08-27
The employment behind the rent 27,955 contracts of employment registered in Mijas in 2025, of which 16,990 temporary and 10,947 permanent 2026-08-27
The resident housing base 33,623 principal family dwellings in Mijas at the 2021 count 2026-08-27

How this runs, step by step

  1. Step 1

    Establish which statute governs

    A residential tenancy sits under Ley 29/1994 and needs no tourism registration. A furnished dwelling marketed through tourist channels falls outside that law and into Decreto 28/2016 with its declaración responsable and its registration code. Decide which of the two you are running before the first advertisement, because the contract, the notice regime and the tax treatment all follow from it. Position as at 27 August 2026.

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  2. Step 2

    Underwrite the contract, not the flat

    Specific to Mijas

    Mijas registered 27,955 contracts of employment in 2025 and 16,990 of them were temporary, so a fixed-term contract is the normal case here rather than a warning sign. Ask for the contract itself, recent payslips and the employer's name, and where the term is short, ask for a guarantor. That single conversation does more for the return on a flat in this district than any refurbishment.

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  3. Step 3

    Fix the term and the extensions

    Article 9 of Ley 29/1994 extends a shorter agreed term in annual steps until the tenancy reaches five years, or seven where the landlord is a legal person. Article 10 then adds a tacit extension of up to three further years unless either party gives the required notice. Write your own plans for the flat against that timetable, not against the term printed on the first page.

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  4. Step 4

    Specify it for a working household

    Specific to Mijas

    The things that keep a tenant into a second and third year here are unglamorous. A garage space that is genuinely on the deed, a quiet rear elevation rather than one facing a workshop yard, storage, a lift that has been modernised, and a walk to a school and a health centre. Fix those before you consider a new kitchen, because they are the reasons a household stays rather than moves two streets.

  5. Step 5

    Take the deposit and the inventory

    A deposit is taken at signature and lodged as the law requires, and your lawyer confirms the current amount and the depositing body in writing rather than working from what a neighbour did five years ago. Take a dated photographic inventory the same day, meter readings included, and have the tenant sign it. Almost every dispute at the end of a long tenancy is a dispute about what the flat looked like at the start.

  6. Step 6

    Test the short-let idea honestly

    Specific to Mijas

    If a short-let plan survives the community's vote and the town hall's written answer, it still has to survive the district itself, which has no beach, no promenade and no visitor traffic to speak of. Paula's read is that short letting here solves a problem this district does not have. Ask the Ayuntamiento de Mijas in writing anyway, and date the reply, but be honest about who would actually book.

A flat here earns the same amount in February as in August, which is the whole proposition. There is no peak to lift the average and no dead season to survive, so the figure that matters is how many months out of sixty the flat was occupied rather than what a good week achieved. What erodes it is predictable: a void between tenancies, the community charge and the municipal property tax, which continue while the flat is empty, and the redecoration a long tenancy eventually needs. Ask Paula what comparable flats on these streets are genuinely achieving.

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 Las Lagunas de Mijas

How long am I committed once a tenant moves in?

Longer than the term on the front page. Under article 9 of Ley 29/1994 an agreed term shorter than five years is extended in annual steps until five years have run, or seven where the landlord is a legal person, and article 10 then adds a tacit extension of up to three further years unless notice is given. The tenant may leave earlier under the conditions the law sets; you generally may not. Plan the flat around that, not around a one-year contract. Sources read 27 August 2026.

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Should I furnish a flat let to a working household?

Usually only partly, and the reason is the length of the tenancy rather than taste. A household taking a flat here for several years arrives with its own sofa, its own beds and its own preferences, and a full set of furniture becomes something you store, insure and eventually replace. Fitted kitchen, white goods, wardrobes and blinds are worth providing; a decorated interior is not. The exception is a flat aimed at a newly arrived worker, where a furnished let genuinely widens the pool.

Is short-let demand worth chasing in this district?

Rarely, and the obstacle is demand rather than paperwork. Las Lagunas has no beach of its own, no promenade and no visitor traffic, so a guest choosing between here and a flat ten minutes away in Fuengirola has an easy decision. Before the community vote and the town hall's written position even become relevant, ask who the booking would come from. Paula's read is that owners here do better with one tenant for five years than with a calendar they cannot fill.

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