AIRBNB holiday rentals are finally falling across Spain after years of explosive growth, with party islands like Ibiza and Mallorca leading the crackdown.
New figures from tourism lobby Exceltur show the number of tourist flats in Spain’s 25 main city destinations fell by 4.1% in the second half of 2025 compared to a year earlier.
That represents a loss of 15,963 tourist beds nationwide, taking the total down to around 366,000.
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It is the first time Spain has recorded an overall decline in short-term holiday rentals since the boom began.
The sharpest long-term drops have been seen in some of Spain’s most saturated destinations.
Ibiza now has 80% fewer holiday lets than at its peak in 2017, while Palma de Mallorca has cut supply by 63%.
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Barcelona is down 37% compared to its high point, with San Sebastian and Santiago de Compostela also recording steep reductions.
On a year-on-year basis, the biggest falls in 2025 were reported in A Coruna, Murcia, Santander, Gijon, Valencia, Oviedo, Alicante and Madrid.
Exceltur says the decline is being driven by tougher enforcement, new registration rules for landlords and growing pressure from residents over soaring rents and housing shortages.
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Ibiza has ramped up inspections to weed out illegal listings, while Barcelona plans to ban all holiday homes by 2028.
Across Spain, property owners must now register tourist flats before advertising them on platforms such as Airbnb.
But while some destinations are slashing holiday lets, others are still expanding.
Malaga ended 2025 with a record 38,848 tourist rental beds, up 3.3% on the previous year.
Sevilla also continued to grow, reaching more than 32,000 beds, a rise of 4%.
Exceltur says Malaga, Almeria and Bilbao all finished the year at their highest-ever levels for tourist accommodation.
Parts of Andalucia such as Sevilla, Cordoba and Granada have seen only minimal reductions, reflecting a looser regulatory crackdown than in the Balearics or Catalonia.
Despite the national slowdown, nearly one-third of tourists in Spain still choose holiday homes over hotels, largely because they remain cheaper.
At the same time, hotels in places like Ibiza are thriving, with the island recording Spain’s highest revenue per room at around €170 in 2025.
Exceltur says Spain is now shifting towards fewer tourists who spend more, as visitor numbers rise modestly but overall spending continues to grow.
The tourism industry insists illegal holiday lets have fuelled overcrowding and housing pressure, but also argues that most congestion in Spanish cities now comes from rising resident populations rather than visitors.
With enforcement tightening in some regions and staying lax in others, Spain’s holiday rental market is entering a new, uneven phase.
For party islands, the Airbnb boom is being rolled back. For the Costa del Sol, the growth story is far from over.
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