Spain panic as holiday home bookings plummet in resort loved by Brits

Holiday rentals in a popular Spanish resort are plummeting after overtourism rows and fears of overcrowding.

Malaga, in the south of the country and loved by Brits, saw tourist apartment bookings fall by 37,000 between July and November 2024.

During this time, 571,773 people stayed in said apartments, compared to 609,277 in the same period of 2023, the Olive Press reports.

Economists put this down to a decline in domestic demand, which may have in part been exacerbated by anti-tourism protests over the summer.

The Tourist Apartment Occupancy Survey recorded 152,192 Spanish residents staying in holiday homes, compared to 213,598 for the same period the previous year.

However, when it came to foreign tourists, there were 419,582, an increase from 395,679. The picture was totally different for foreign visitors, with 419,581 travellers logged last year – up from 395,679 in 2023.

The numbers only account for licenced apartments as there are no records of the unregulated ones – which may account for four in 10 of all Malaga tourist rentals, the Spanish government said. 

The number of registered apartments also plummeted in 2024 by 11,441 raising concerns over the number of illegal ones popping up.

Malaga also introduced a ban on new short-term apartment leases in the city’s most “tourist-saturated” areas where more than 8% of homes are rented on a short-term basis.

The ban affects 43 neighbourhoods to encourage tourist flats “in neighbourhoods with less tourist pressure and are blocked in those where there is a greater number of tourist accommodations”, the city council said.

Carmen Casero, in charge of the planning department, said: “This is not the end, it is the beginning … We will continue to do things.”