Mid-term or holiday rental in Madrid: which suits you, depending on your flat

The question we hear most from Madrid owners is no longer "how much will I earn from my holiday flat?". It's a different one: "can I still set one up?". And the honest answer is that it depends on the building, on the neighbours and on the date you try, because over the last two years the rules have moved three times. While that happens, the mid-term let (by the week or the month, not by the night) has become the route many owners are looking at for the first time.

They are not the same and they don't take the same work, so it is worth separating them before deciding. A holiday let is renting by the night to travellers and is subject to the Comunidad de Madrid's tourism rules and to the municipal licence. A mid-term let is governed by the LAU (Ley de Arrendamientos Urbanos, Spain's tenancy law) and doesn't need a tourist licence if it genuinely responds to a temporary reason. Of the 93 flats we manage today across 18 cities, 12 are on mid-term lets rather than holiday lets: almost one in eight, and two years ago there were far fewer. We don't mention it as a fad, but because we hear the question above every week.

What follows is what each option requires in Madrid as of today and how to read your own case before you sign anything. If you would rather we looked at your specific flat, you can write to us and we'll go through it with no sales call behind it.

Holiday or mid-term: what really separates them

The holiday let is the one you know: you list on Airbnb or Booking, guests come and go every few nights and stays are short. In our flats the average number of nights per booking moves between just over four and six depending on the month, over more than two thousand bookings in the last year. That's a lot of turnover: cleaning between guests, support at any hour, prices that change almost daily. It earns more per night, but it is also the most regulated and the one that needs the most hands.

The mid-term let is the one many people don't know exists as a category of its own. Article 3 of the Ley de Arrendamientos Urbanos covers it as an "arrendamiento para uso distinto del de vivienda" (a lease for a use other than housing): a contract for a specific period (a six-month job, a course, a relocation) that doesn't cover the tenant's permanent housing need. Neither tourist weeks nor an open-ended contract: the middle ground. If you want to understand when a let genuinely counts as temporary, we go into it in this guide to valid reasons for a mid-term let.

The practical difference is who walks through the door. With a holiday let, a traveller who leaves in five days. With a mid-term let, someone who lives there for a few months. The relationship changes, the wear on the flat changes and, above all, what the law asks of you changes.

Why setting up a new holiday flat in Madrid has become harder

Here is why the question has changed. To start a holiday let in a residential building, applying for the licence is no longer enough: first the comunidad de propietarios (owners' association) has to let you. Since the reform of the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal (Spain's law on owners' associations) that came into force on 3 April 2025, approving, conditioning or banning holiday-let activity in a building requires a favourable vote from three fifths of the owners who in turn represent three fifths of the participation shares (article 17.12 of the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal, current text in the BOE). In an ordinary residential block in Madrid, gathering those three fifths in favour of a holiday flat isn't easy: it's the first door, and for many owners it's the one that doesn't open.

Add to that the back-and-forth over the register. Real Decreto 1312/2024 created a single registration number and a Ventanilla Única Digital (single digital window), effective from 1 June 2025, needed to advertise short-term rentals on the platforms. But in May 2026 the Tribunal Supremo (Spain's Supreme Court) struck down the single registration number for encroaching on regional powers, and left the Ventanilla standing: according to the report published by idealista on 21 May 2026, owners and operators are no longer obliged to obtain that single national registration. The upshot is that what governs is once again each autonomous community's rules, and the Comunidad de Madrid's (Decreto 79/2014, amended by Decreto 27/2026, published in the BOCM on 6 April 2026) still regulates the requirements for viviendas de uso turístico (holiday-let homes).

Summed up without small print: the national part has moved and may move again, while the regional and municipal parts are the ones that really decide whether your flat can be a holiday let. That is why we give every statement on this with its date, and why we recommend not taking for granted anything you read six months ago. If your case is getting the tourist licence, we explain it step by step in how to get your tourist licence in Madrid; if what you want is to hand over the whole operation, see what a holiday-flat management company in Madrid does and doesn't do.

What a mid-term let needs, and what it doesn't

The main advantage of a mid-term let in Madrid is what it doesn't ask for: as it isn't a tourist activity, it doesn't need a holiday-let licence and doesn't depend on the three-fifths vote of the owners' association. It is governed by the contract and by article 3 of the LAU, with a condition that is no small thing: it has to respond to a real, documented temporary reason. A nine-month contract with a relocated professional is mid-term; a "mid-term contract" that is really a disguised holiday let to dodge the licence is fraude de ley (circumvention of the law), and the owner pays for it if an inspection comes.

What a mid-term let does need is a well-drafted contract that makes the reason and the term clear, and clarity on the deposit, utilities and the condition at check-in and check-out. We don't give legal advice on your specific case here (that's what your adviser is for), but we will tell you where the line is: a mid-term let holds up if the tenant's reason is temporary and is recorded as such. When that reason doesn't exist, it isn't the arrangement you're looking for.

For the owner, the day-to-day change is big. Less turnover, fewer cleans, less night-time support and a tenant who looks after the flat more because they live in it. In exchange, the nightly rate is lower than a holiday let's and the weak months can be harder to fill. It isn't "better" or "worse": it's a different product.

How the mid-term rental market moves in Madrid

Madrid is right now the most expensive capital in Spain to rent in: €23.4 per square metre per month, ahead of Barcelona, according to idealista's price report published on 1 October 2026. A tight market like that is precisely what drives mid-term stays: there is demand from people who need a flat now, furnished and for a few months, and can't find one.

Who that demand is matters for the decision. In Madrid, mid-term stays are driven mainly by three profiles: professionals relocated for work, healthcare staff and company staff on projects lasting a few months, and digital nomads or postgraduate students. An idealista analysis reported by Infobae in June 2026 put the share of mid-term listings on idealista in Madrid as rising from 4% to 10% between 2019 and 2023; it's a trend from a few years back, but it only goes one way.

To read what your flat could earn, the useful yardstick isn't a magic number but the fit: how many months a year you would be willing to commit in one go, which area it's in (areas with offices, hospitals and universities work better for mid-term lets) and whether the flat can take a continuous tenant. We don't publish reference rates because they depend too much on the specific flat, but we will tell you what to expect from yours before you sign anything. The proof that the management works is left by the guests: across the platforms we have more than 2,300 reviews on Airbnb with an average rating of 8.76 and more than 1,500 on Booking. It isn't a promise of returns; it's the result of running the operation well, which is the only thing you can really control.

So which one suits you?

The decision comes down to three questions about your case, not about the market in general.

• Will the owners' association let you? If your building doesn't gather the three fifths in favour of holiday use, the mid-term let stops being an alternative and becomes the realistic route.
• How much do you want to commit? If you need to be able to use the flat or sell it soon, a mid-term let ties you down less; if you're after the highest nightly rate and the flat is in an area of high tourist demand with the licence sorted, a holiday let earns more.
• How much operation can you handle? A holiday let is a daily job; a mid-term let is easier to manage but demands a well-drafted contract and choosing the tenant well.

If after all this you still aren't sure, that's normal, and it's exactly where seeing the numbers for your specific flat helps, instead of those in the headline. We can do that calculation for you and tell you, honestly, whether your home fits better as a holiday let, a mid-term let or neither: tell us about your flat and we'll take a look.