Spain’s New Rental Law: What Royal Decree-Law 28/2026 Changes

Spain has a new rental law, and from 15 November 2026 ending a long-term lease will cost most landlords at least a year's rent. Royal Decree-Law 28/2026 was approved on 6 October and published in the BOE on 7 October, only days after Congress threw out the government's previous housing decrees.

The government has now used the same tool again: a new emergency decree, approved after Parliament was dissolved. This one is narrower and more precise. It rewrites a single article of the Urban Leases Act (LAU), article 10, which governs what happens when a primary-residence lease reaches the end of its term.

• In force from 15 November 2026. It applies to primary-residence leases (vivienda habitual) already running, but only to expiry dates after that day.
• Renewals become five or seven years, not one. Once a lease has run its minimum five years (seven if the landlord is a company), it now renews automatically for a further five or seven years at a time, again and again, unless one side gives notice. The old system of annual renewals for up to three more years disappears.
• Longer notice for landlords. A landlord must now give at least six months' notice that the lease will not be renewed, up from four. Tenants still need to give only two months.
• Compensation for the tenant. A landlord who validly ends the lease must pay the tenant the higher of twelve months' rent, or one month's rent for every year the tenant has lived there. It is calculated on the top of the State rental price index range for that home, and paid when the keys are handed back.
• Five exceptions. No compensation is due if the owner needs the home for themselves or close family, the tenant has not really lived there, the tenant owns another suitable home in the same town, the parties sign a new lease, or the tenant turns down a qualifying new lease. The reason must be stated in writing in the notice.
• The obligation follows the property. If a tenanted home is sold, the buyer takes over the duty to pay the compensation.
• Renewal terms can't get worse. If the parties later agree to renew, it must be for at least five or seven years, and any clause that worsens the tenant's position compared with the original contract is void.
• Notices sent before 7 October still count, and do not trigger compensation.

In practice the minimum payment is twelve months' rent, and it only rises above that once a tenant has lived in the home for more than twelve years.

The monthly figure is not the rent in the contract. It is the upper value of the range the State rental price index (sistema estatal de referencia de precios de alquiler) gives for that specific home. Only where the index has no value for the property is the current contract rent used instead. Periods shorter than a year are pro-rated by months, and shorter than a month by days.

Worked example, assuming the index gives a top value of €2,500 a month:

The payment falls due when the tenant hands back the property. A tenant who qualifies for a legal extension (for example, on grounds of vulnerability) and does not ask for it loses the right to compensation. One who does ask receives it at the end of the extension instead.

The landlord avoids paying only in five cases, and the reason must be set out expressly, in detail and in writing in the notice itself:

1. The owner needs the home. A landlord who is a private individual needs it as a permanent home for themselves, a child, parent, grandchild, grandparent or sibling, or a spouse after a final separation or divorce ruling. If nobody moves in within three months of the handover, the tenant can claim the full compensation.
2. The tenant doesn't really live there. The tenant has been away for more than six of the last twelve months, unless for health, work, study or caring reasons, or family members have stayed on in the home.
3. The tenant has another home. On the date of the notice the tenant owns, or has a right to use, another suitable home in the same municipality that they can move into.
4. A new lease is signed. The parties sign a new primary-residence lease.
5. The tenant refuses a fair new lease. The landlord makes a formal offer of a new lease during the notice period and the tenant rejects it. The offer must guarantee at least five years (seven for companies), and the new rent must follow the rent-cap rules for stressed housing areas in article 17.6 of the LAU, even where the home is not in such an area.

The fifth point matters: offering the tenant a new lease at a fresh market rent does not get the landlord out of paying.

• Notices sent before 7 October 2026 keep their effect and never trigger compensation, even if the lease is later extended.
• Leases expiring within six months of 15 November (that is, before mid-May 2027): the landlord may still give the old four months' notice.
• Leases already in their annual renewal years under the old rules finish that period as before. The new five- or seven-year cycle starts when it ends.
• Leases running month to month or year to year after their term ended (tácita reconducción, under the Civil Code) come under the new rules from their first renewal date after 15 November. The original contract years and the time since both count towards the five- or seven-year minimum.

What has changed since our last article

When we last wrote, the reform looked dead: Congress had rejected decrees 26/2026 and 27/2026, and housing was set to become an election issue. A week later the main tenant-protection measure is back, in more detailed and tighter form.

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The government also approved a companion decree the same day, RDL 29/2026, on the social function of housing and affordable supply. It sets the scope of article 10 and adds its own extraordinary extension, which acts as a bridge for leases whose end had already been decided. We will look at it separately.

The new rules hit long-term lets of primary residences hardest. Much of Sotogrande's rental market is holiday and seasonal lets, which fall outside article 10. The line must be real, though: a "seasonal" contract used for someone's permanent home can be treated by the courts as a primary-residence lease.

• List every lease's expiry date now. For any expiry from May 2027 onwards, notice is six months, not four.
• Before deciding not to renew, work out the compensation on the State index value for your home, not your current rent.
• If you plan to live in the property or hand it to family, state the reason and the family member in detail in the notice. If nobody moves in within three months, the compensation becomes payable anyway.

• A buyer of a tenanted home takes over both the lease and the duty to pay compensation. Expect buyers to price that in.
• If you want to sell with vacant possession, plan the timing now. Ending a lease without one of the five exceptions will cost at least a year's rent.

• Before buying a tenanted property, ask for the lease, its start date, any renewals, and any notices already sent. A notice sent before 7 October 2026 keeps its effect and carries no compensation.
• For a buy-to-let, the true cost of getting the property back is now part of the yield calculation.

• A tenant who keeps to the contract can now plan in five- or seven-year blocks, and will be compensated if asked to leave without one of the listed reasons.

The decree is law today, but it is not yet secure. Like any royal decree-law, it must be validated by Parliament within 30 days. With both chambers dissolved for the 29 November election, that vote falls to Congress's Permanent Deputation (Diputación Permanente), where the parties that rejected the earlier decrees still have their say. The government argues in the decree's preamble that re-issuing a rejected measure has plenty of precedent. Its opponents are likely to see it differently, and a new government could change the rules again in 2027.

In short: plan as if the new rules apply from 15 November, and keep watching. As we said last time, tenant security and landlord confidence need not be opposites. This decree adds to the first. Whether it costs the second, and with it the supply of long-term rentals, is the question the market will answer over the coming year.

If you own, let or are thinking of buying a property in Sotogrande and want to know how these changes affect you, get in touch with the Noll Sotogrande team.

This article is general information, not legal advice. For a specific lease, speak to a lawyer.

Sources

• Real Decreto-ley 28/2026, de 6 de octubre (BOE nº 249, 7 October 2026, BOE-A-2026-20822)