Tourist Licence on the Costa Brava 2026: Where You Can Still Get One

Most buyers who contact us about rental income have done the arithmetic backwards. They find a house, like it, and then ask whether it can be let by the week. By then the answer is usually no, and the whole financial model collapses. On the Costa Brava the licence is not paperwork you sort out after the purchase. It is a feature of the property, like the pool or the plot, and in 2026 it is the scarcest feature of all.

What the licence actually is

A habitatge d’ús turístic (HUT) is the permit that allows a dwelling to be let for stays of 31 days or less. It is attached to the dwelling, not to the owner, so it transfers with the sale. The property is entered in Catalonia’s tourism register and the registration number has to appear in every advertisement.

Without it, short-term letting is illegal. Letting for longer than 31 days needs no tourist licence anywhere in Catalonia, and that is the route most of our buyers end up taking. Since 2026 the rent on those longer lets is capped in some municipalities, which we come back to below.

What changed in the last three years

Decree Law 3/2023 brought 262 Catalan municipalities under a regime of prior urban planning licence: in those towns a tourist dwelling needs a municipal licence before it can operate, and the municipality can refuse. The ceiling is 10 tourist dwellings per 100 inhabitants, and it becomes binding in 2028.

That last date matters more than most buyers realise, because it is not only about new licences.

Where the door is already closed

Palafrugell (Tamariu, Llafranc, Calella de Palafrugell). The town hall’s own guidance for this procedure says the municipality is above the ratio of 10 tourist dwellings per 100 inhabitants set out in the twenty-seventh additional provision of Decree 1/2010, and that consequently no new urban planning licences for tourist dwellings can be granted. A one-year moratorium passed in October 2023 is often quoted in the press, but the operative reason today is the ratio, not that moratorium.

Lloret de Mar. The town hall states that it is no longer possible to obtain new HUT licences and that the only procedures still available are changes of owner and cancellations. Lloret had around 3,134 registered tourist dwellings in 2025, down from 3,277 the year before, so the stock is shrinking rather than growing.

The municipalities that will have to cut

Seven municipalities in the Baix Empordà are already above the 2028 ceiling and will have to reduce their number of tourist dwellings, not expand it: Pals, Begur, Torroella de Montgrí, Calonge i Sant Antoni, Castell d’Aro, Platja d’Aro i S’Agaró, Palafrugell and Vilopriu. Note that Castell d’Aro, Platja d’Aro and S’Agaró are a single municipality, which is why the list reads as seven and not nine.

The gap is not marginal. Pals sits above 55 tourist dwellings per 100 inhabitants, with 1,419 registered against a permitted 255. Begur has 1,171 and would be allowed roughly 428. Torroella de Montgrí, Calonge i Sant Antoni and Castell-Platja d’Aro are each around 20 per 100. Palafrugell and Vilopriu are only slightly over.

A buyer who purchases a licensed property in Begur or Platja d’Aro today is buying into a municipality that is legally obliged to shrink the number of licences before 2028. Which licences survive, and on what criteria, is being worked out now. A municipality that has not complied by 2028 cannot grant new licences or renew existing ones until 2033. Anyone telling you a licence there is guaranteed for life is guessing.

What we found in our own catalogue

Based on our own search of the partner catalogue in September 2026, across the whole stretch from Sant Feliu de Guíxols to Begur in the 440,000 to 1,000,000 euro range, there was not a single property on the market with an active tourist licence. Every licensed property we could find in that price band was in Blanes, Lloret de Mar or Tossa de Mar, and those are existing licences attached to specific houses, not permits a new owner could apply for.

We checked because a French buyer asked a precise question: he wanted a house between Sant Feliu and Begur, three bedrooms minimum, with rental income covering the loan. The honest answer was that his zone and his financing model were incompatible, and he had to choose one. He would not have learned that from any portal listing. The wider picture on how short letting works here is in our guide to tourist rental on the Costa Brava.

So what are the options

Buy a property that already holds an active licence. Verify it by its registration number in the Catalan tourism register, not by the seller’s word and not by the wording of an advertisement. We have seen agency listings state “licencia turística” where the owner later confirmed there was none.

Let for longer than 31 days. No tourist licence and no register, anywhere in Catalonia. Monthly lets to remote workers, winter tenants and long holidays. The gross yield is lower than weekly summer letting, and it needs almost no management.

One thing changed in 2026 that is still missing from most advice on this. Under Catalan law in force since 1 January 2026, a seasonal let is no longer defined by the length of the contract but by its real purpose, and in municipalities declared a tensioned residential market the rent is capped unless that purpose is genuinely holiday or leisure. Lloret de Mar, Blanes, Palafrugell and Castell-Platja d’Aro are all on the tensioned list. A summer holiday let there is outside the cap; a winter let to a remote worker is inside it. If your plan is to cover a mortgage with ten-month tenancies, check the reference index for that street before you count on a number.

Choose the municipality first, the house second. If short-term letting is the point of the purchase, the search starts with where licences exist and survive, not with which house you like. Our comparison of Blanes and Lloret de Mar is a reasonable place to begin, because both still have licensed stock in circulation.

Two traps that are not in any listing

The first is the wording of advertisements. “Licencia turística” in a listing may mean an active licence, a licence that lapsed, or simply that the seller believes one could be obtained. On one Blanes property this year the agency description said the parking space was included in the price; the owner told us it was not and cost 30,000 euros extra. Descriptions are marketing copy, not documents.

The second is the community of owners. Even with a valid HUT, the statutes of a closed urbanisation can forbid or restrict seasonal letting. In the gated developments around Lloret and Blanes this is increasingly common, and the statutes are not published anywhere, so you ask the administrator.

Questions buyers ask us about licences

Sources: Ajuntament de Palafrugell, procedure page for opening a tourist dwelling (ratio of the twenty-seventh additional provision of Decret 1/2010); Ajuntament de Lloret de Mar, tourist dwelling information page and municipal ordinance; Decret Llei 3/2023 and Llei 11/2025 of the Generalitat de Catalunya (the latter on seasonal lets and rent containment, in force 1 January 2026); Ràdio Capital de l’Empordà, 2 March 2026, on the seven Baix Empordà municipalities above the 2028 ceiling; Idescat, registered tourist dwellings in Lloret de Mar. Position as of October 2026. Licensing rules change and each town hall applies its own planning instrument, so verify current terms with your legal advisor in Spain before you rely on any of this.