Plan RESIDE 2025 in Madrid is a modification of the city’s General Urban Plan designed to protect residential use. It was finally approved on 27 August 2025 and entered into force upon publication in the Official Gazette of the Community of Madrid (BOCM) on 4 September 2025.
This new plan replaces the 2019 Special Lodging Plan and shields primary housing from the expansion of tourist apartments, reorganising the supply of tourist accommodation to improve coexistence between residents and visitors.
Below, in clear language, we explain how Plan RESIDE regulates dwellings for tourist use (VUT) in Madrid, what penalties apply to illegal VUT, and which options you have if you are affected.
1) Goodbye to scattered tourist flats in the Historic Centre
In Madrid’s Historic Centre (area APE 00.01, roughly within the M-30), Plan RESIDE sets very strict rules for tourist apartments:
- Ban on VUT inside residential buildings.
The City Council will no longer grant licences for scattered tourist flats within residential buildings anywhere in the Historic Centre—not even on ground floor.
If you own or invest in a tourist apartment within a residential community in the centre, you won’t be able to obtain the municipal tourist housing licence to keep operating at that location. The aim is to avoid mixing tourists and residents in the same building and to preserve neighbours’ quality of life.
- Exceptions: non-residential or protected buildings.
Tourist housing will only be allowed in the centre if the entire building is devoted to lodging use. Specifically, in buildings that are not primarily residential (e.g., a vacant office building), VUT may be implemented without the “scattered” limitation.
There is also a special rule intended to rescue historic buildings: if a protected residential building sits on a non-commercial (non-tertiary) street, its use may be converted entirely to tourist lodging (i.e., an exclusive tourist apartment building) for up to 15 years, provided the building undergoes full rehabilitation. This temporary 15-year licence is tied to the restoration works and, once the period expires, the building must revert to residential use. In short, Plan RESIDE offers a time-limited opportunity to operate certain rehabilitated protected buildings for tourism, but prevents permanent conversion.
The exact perimeter of the Historic Centre and the list of “tertiary axes” (commercial streets) are officially defined by the City Council.
If you own property in the centre, it’s wise to verify case by case whether your building is inside the restricted area or on a tertiary street. A prior urban due diligence can confirm your asset’s status and the real prospects of obtaining a tourist licence.
2) Outside the centre: conditions for tourist apartments in residential neighbourhoods
Across the rest of the city (outside the Historic Centre), Plan RESIDE still allows VUT, but tightens the conditions when they share the building with regular homes:
- Independent entrance from the street.
Any tourist dwelling in a mixed-use building (coexisting with residential units) must have its own entrance from the public street. In practice, it cannot use the same main door, lift or staircase as the residents.
Typically, viable cases are ground or first-floor units capable of creating a separate entrance (or which already have one, such as former porter’s flats or premises with their own door).
- Only on lower floors.
Outside the centre, VUT may only be located on basement-mezzanine (below ground-floor), ground, or first floors. In short, converting a flat on the second floor or above in a standard residential building would not be authorised—unless the entire building is dedicated to tourist use.
- Entire buildings.
It remains possible to devote an entire building outside the centre to tourist apartments, subject to applicable rules (e.g., turning a whole building into lawful short-stay apartments). In those cases—without resident neighbours—the floor limitations don’t apply, but you still need the corresponding tourist housing (lodging) licence and must meet all technical and regulatory requirements.
3) Protecting local retail: shop premises and “tertiary axes”
A key novelty intended to protect neighbourhood retail is the ban on converting ground-floor shop premises into tourist housing in certain zones:
- In the Historic Centre: You cannot convert a shop into tourist housing. The aim is to keep ground-floor premises for retail, hospitality and services that support local life, instead of losing them to short-stay lodging.
- On main commercial streets outside the centre: The plan identifies several tertiary axes where it is forbidden to convert a shop into tourist housing and even into residential housing. In these high-value retail corridors, the City wants to avoid losing premises both to tourist lodging and to standard dwellings. Streets affected include sections of Bravo Murillo, López de Hoyos, Alcalá, Marcelo Usera, Paseo de Extremadura, among many others. If you plan to buy or convert a premises on one of these axes, note that Plan RESIDE won’t allow a change to any housing use (tourist or residential). Always run urban due diligence and check the official list of streets before making investment decisions.
Between 2015 and 2024, over 3,300 shop premises in Madrid were converted into housing or tourist apartments because of the higher returns those uses offered. Plan RESIDE seeks to lock in strategic retail spaces so they remain street-facing businesses, reinforcing neighbourhood life.
4) Penalties and shutdowns: what happens if you run a VUT without a licence
Plan RESIDE comes with a tougher enforcement and sanction regime against illegal tourist apartments:
- Immediate cease-and-desist order. If a VUT is detected operating without the municipal lodging licence, the City will issue an order to cease activity.
- High, escalating fines. Ignoring the order and continuing illegally triggers escalating, cumulative fines: first €30,001, then €60,001, and then €100,001 for a third offence. These fines can continue to accumulate (30k + 60k + 100k, etc.) as long as the infringement persists. This represents a dramatic increase over the previous coercive fines of just €1,000–3,000, signalling a firm intent to stamp out illegal VUT.
- More inspections. The City has increased its team of inspectors targeting clandestine tourist apartments, making detection far more likely.
Given this, we recommend regularising any tourist rental you manage—or, if a licence is impossible under Plan RESIDE, considering lawful alternatives (e.g., mid-stay corporate lets, room rentals, or classic long-term tenancy).
Each case needs tailored analysis. Quikprokuo has specialist lawyers in tourist-housing licensing who can advise you on next steps and how to avoid penalties. Contact us to protect your investment.
5) Can Plan RESIDE be challenged? (Appeals and deadlines)
Because Plan RESIDE is an urban planning norm approved by the Community of Madrid, affected parties may file a contentious-administrative appeal before the High Court of Justice of Madrid (TSJM).
The deadline is two months from the day after official publication (i.e., roughly until early November 2025). Challenging an urban plan is complex and requires solid legal grounds (procedural defects, conflicts with higher-rank norms, etc.).
If you are considering challenging Plan RESIDE or a licence refusal under it, Quikprokuo can assess feasibility and, if appropriate, represent you.
6) Conclusions: a new landscape for short-stay rentals in Madrid
Plan RESIDE 2025 is a watershed for tourist apartments in Madrid. In short, scattered VUT disappear from residential buildings in the centre, pushing tourist supply towards entire buildings and specific areas outside traditional residential districts.
In exchange, the City expects to recover homes for long-term rental in central neighbourhoods and to slow resident displacement. At the same time, the City opens new real-estate opportunities (explored in our next article) to convert certain properties into housing, aiming for a more balanced urban growth.
Owners, investors and developers will now need to adapt. If your plan was short-stay rentals in Madrid, you’ll need to rethink it under Plan RESIDE: perhaps focus on entire buildings outside the centre, explore temporary tourist licences in protected buildings, or pivot to conventional tenancies. Tenants may see more traditional rental supply in the centre over the medium term as homes return from tourism.
In all cases, navigating this framework takes knowledge and planning. Quikprokuo offers end-to-end support: urban due diligence to analyse your property, lodging licences, change-of-use procedures, and contentious-administrative actions where needed. Get in touch, we’ll help you comply with Plan RESIDE without sacrificing investment returns.
