Contrato de Temporada Explained: 6–11 Month Rentals in Spain (2026)

Quick Answer

The contrato de temporada is a 6–11 month furnished-rental contract under Spanish Ley de Arrendamientos Urbanos Article 3, used for documented temporary purposes — work assignments, study, medical stays, pre-purchase transitions. Not primary residence. For relocating families, it solves the gap between Airbnb (which Andalucía is rapidly delicensing — about 3,800 VFT cancellations across Málaga province between 2024 and August 2025) and full-year LAU rentals (which auto-renew up to five years and scare many owners off the long-term market). Typical Estepona temporada rent in May 2026 runs €1,800–€4,500/month furnished for a 2–3 bedroom apartment — 20–40% above LAU long-term. Owners need a written "temporary cause" clause; if absent, courts reclassify the contract as standard LAU and restore the five-year auto-renewal rights for the tenant.

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Why this contract suddenly matters everywhere on the Costa del Sol

Two things happened on the Costa del Sol rental market between late 2024 and mid-2026 that made the contrato de temporada the centre of every rental conversation.

First, Andalucía cancelled around 3,800 VFT (vivienda con fines turísticos) tourist-rental licences across Málaga province between 2024 and August 2025, with a city-wide moratorium on new VFTs in Málaga since late August 2025. Forty-three neighbourhoods are now over the 8% saturation cap, meaning no new licences will be granted there. Owners who built their model around Airbnb suddenly need a Plan B.

Second, families relocating on Spain's Digital Nomad Visa exploded — about 32,000 DNVs issued nationally since 2023, with Estepona and Benahavís seeing roughly 40% year-on-year growth. These families don't want Airbnb (too expensive long-term, not eligible for padrón) and don't want LAU long-term (the contracts won't be signed by skittish owners for under a year). They want furnished, 6–12 months, flexible.

The contrato de temporada was always the answer — Article 3 of LAU has existed since 1994. Almost nobody used it well. The owners who learn it now own the next two years of mid-term rental yield on this coast.

What the law actually says

Spain's residential rental law (Ley 29/1994 de Arrendamientos Urbanos, as amended by Ley 12/2023) splits residential leases into two regimes:

| | LAU vivienda habitual (Article 2) | LAU arrendamiento por temporada (Article 3) | |---|---|---| | Purpose | Primary residence | Temporary purpose (work, study, medical, etc.) | | Term | 1 year minimum, auto-renews to 5 years (individual landlord) or 7 (corporate) | 6–11 months typical; no statutory auto-renewal | | Deposit | 1 month, by law | 2 months allowed by law, plus up to 2 months additional guarantee | | Furnished? | Optional | Almost always furnished | | Rent updates | Linked to IPC, capped during the renewal phase | Free between parties; subject to renegotiation at renewal | | Tenant notice to leave | Free after first 6 months, 30 days' notice | As per contract; no statutory floor | | Landlord ability to end at term | Restricted | Free at agreed end date |

The two regimes are not loose categories you can pick from based on what suits you. The Tribunal Supremo and provincial courts decide which regime applies based on the real purpose of the lease — not what the contract claims. This is the single most important thing to understand if you're a tenant or an owner.

What "temporary purpose" actually means in practice

The contract must document a real, verifiable reason the tenant is in the property temporarily rather than as a primary home. Courts have repeatedly stripped owners of contrato de temporada protections when the "temporary purpose" was a fiction.

What has held up in 2024–25 Spanish case law:

• Work assignment — employer letter showing time-bound posting in the area, ideally with end date
• Study / language programme — enrolment letter from school or university with course dates
• Medical treatment — hospital or clinic documentation
• Pre-purchase transition — signed reservation or preliminary contract on another Spanish property
• Sabbatical — proof of primary residence elsewhere (e.g. tax residency certificate from another country, ongoing mortgage on home country residence)

What hasn't held up (real 2024–25 case law, including Tribunal Supremo Sentencia 1834/2024 from December 2024):

• "Vacation" or "extended holiday" without independent proof of primary residence elsewhere
• "Trying out the city to see if we want to settle" — courts read this as primary-residence intent
• "Remote work" without an employer letter tying it to a project end date
• Vague "temporary" clauses with no documented underlying purpose

If the court reclassifies the contract as LAU vivienda habitual, the tenant gets the five-year auto-renewal rights retroactively. For an owner, this can mean a tenant they expected to leave in nine months staying for five years at a non-negotiable rent.

Owner side: when temporada makes sense

The contrato de temporada is most attractive to owners in four specific situations:

1. Recently lost or cancelled VFT licence. The furnishings and turnover infrastructure are already in place — pivoting to 6–11 month tenants is the lowest-friction route to legal income.
2. Apartment in a community of owners that voted to ban short-term rentals. Many comunidades de propietarios in Estepona, Marbella and Mijas have passed POH (Propiedad Horizontal) rules banning under-31-day rentals — temporada is fully compliant.
3. Owner who uses the property seasonally themselves. A 6-month rental from October to April lets the owner use the property June–September while still earning on it.
4. Owner uncertain about long-term commitment. New owners, owners considering selling, or those waiting for market clarity often prefer the optionality of a 9-month contract over a 1-year auto-renewable one.

The honest yield math, Estepona May 2026, 2-bedroom 80m² apartment near the beach:

| Model | Gross monthly | Months/year occupied | Annual gross | Notes | |---|---|---|---|---| | LAU long-term unfurnished | €1,800 | 12 | €21,600 | Lowest risk, lowest yield, most tenant protection | | Contrato de temporada furnished (single 9-month) | €2,800 | 9 | €25,200 | Owner uses property 3 months, lower turnover risk | | Contrato de temporada furnished (back-to-back) | €2,800 | 11 | €30,800 | Owner uses 1 month, more management overhead | | Holiday rental (where VFT licence held) | €120/night | 65–70% occupancy ≈ 240 nights | €28,800 | High turnover, high cleaning cost, exposed to regulation |

After deducting furnishing amortisation, comunidad fees, IBI, agency fees, and management overhead, the gap between temporada and STR typically narrows to under €3,000/year — and STR carries enforcement risk that temporada does not.

Tenant side: when temporada is actually the right call

For relocating families specifically, contrato de temporada is the right call in three cases:

1. Rent-before-buy. You want to live in Estepona for 6–12 months to decide which area, school, and property to buy. A temporada with a "pre-purchase transition" clause is the cleanest legal anchor.
2. Visa-defined posting. Digital Nomad Visa, Highly Qualified Professional permit, or any other visa tied to a specific work assignment with a known end date. Use the visa documentation as the temporary-purpose evidence.
3. Family transition. Moving for one school year while the older kids finish school elsewhere, or moving for a partner's specific medical treatment that has a defined timeline.

When temporada is wrong for you:

• You're moving to Spain permanently and want stability. Sign LAU vivienda habitual from day one. The 5-year auto-renewal protects you, and the rent is 20–40% lower.
• You don't have a documented temporary purpose. The contract is risky for both parties and may be reclassified.
• You're trying to dodge full residence registration (padrón). Padrón is required for anyone staying over six months regardless of contract type.

What goes in the contract

A defensible contrato de temporada includes, at minimum:

• Identification of both parties with full name, NIE/NIF/passport, address
• Property description with cadastral reference (referencia catastral)
• Specific dates of the lease — start and end, with month and day
• Stated temporary purpose in a dedicated clause (cláusula de causa de temporalidad), with reference to the supporting document
• Rent amount, payment method, and any IPC adjustment formula if the term spans a year boundary
• Deposit (fianza) of 2 months plus any additional guarantee, deposited with the regional rent agency (in Andalucía, AVRA)
• Utility responsibility (typically all utilities to tenant, comunidad fees to owner)
• Inventory of furnishings with photos, signed at handover and again at exit
• Exit clause with notice period and conditions
• Reference to LAU Article 3 explicitly — this is a tenant-side and owner-side protection

A clause we add to every Casa Dolmatov temporada draft: an explicit statement that both parties have read and acknowledge the temporary purpose, with the supporting documentation attached as Annex 1. This pre-empts the most common reclassification claim.

Tax: the often-forgotten layer

Tax treatment varies based on the tenant's residency status and the owner's:

• Non-resident owner, EU/EEA resident tenant — 19% withholding on net rental income (after deductible expenses)
• Non-resident owner, non-EU/EEA tenant — 24% withholding on gross rental income, no expense deductions
• Resident owner — rental income at progressive rates; if the tenant declares the property as their primary residence (vivienda habitual), the owner gets a 60% deduction on net rental income. This deduction does NOT apply to contrato de temporada because the tenant is not declaring it as primary residence.

The 60% deduction loss is often the biggest financial argument against temporada for resident owners. We covered the broader picture in our Spanish rental tax for non-resident landlords guide — coming next week.

How this connects to your move

If you arrived here via moving to Spain with a non-EU spouse, you already know the family-member residence card is processed off your tenancy contract — the address on your padrón comes from your rental. A contrato de temporada is fully accepted by extranjería for the EX-19 application, padrón registration, and bank account opening — provided the contract is properly drafted.

If you're an owner with a recently cancelled VFT or a comunidad de propietarios that just voted to ban STR, send us the property details and we'll come back on WhatsApp within 24 hours with a contract-type recommendation and a tenant pipeline reading.

If you're a family relocating and need a 6–12 month furnished base while you figure out the school, area, and buy/rent decision, tell us what you need and we'll match you with a property where the temporada contract is correctly drafted from the outset.

Frequently Asked Questions

See FAQ section above (rendered automatically from frontmatter).

What to do next

The two-line summary: contrato de temporada is the right answer for genuinely temporary stays with a documented purpose. It is the wrong answer for permanent relocation pretending to be temporary. Get the purpose right, document it, draft the contract with a real lawyer or gestor who has handled at least 20 of these post-2023 reform.

The biggest risk is not the contract — it is signing a contract drafted in 2018 templates that were fine before the 2023 LAU reform and the 2024–25 Tribunal Supremo case law tightened the temporary-purpose test. If you sign a contract referencing pre-2023 rules, you're probably exposed.