The Spanish Federation of Tourist Homes and Apartments (Fevitur) has announced its transformation into a nationwide employers’ association representing short-term accommodation in residential properties. Its aim is to represent both tourist apartments and other non-tourist forms of temporary rental, such as flex living, coliving and cohousing, bringing together associations, federations and companies across the sector.
The organisation stresses that this new phase is driven by a commitment to ongoing dialogue and by the ambition to take part in collective bargaining, public policy development and the design of urban sustainability strategies. The goal is to strengthen the sector’s governance through evidence-based decision-making, dialogue and a clear regulatory framework that reinforces its economic and social role.
According to its president, Silvia Blasco, the objective is not merely to defend sectoral interests, but to contribute solutions to the general interest, grounded in solid business, social and legal foundations.
Fevitur argues that short-term accommodation in residential properties has become a structural component of both Spain’s tourism offering and the temporary rental market. Official data indicate that the sector generates around €32 billion in spending and more than 170,000 direct and indirect jobs, while also supporting local services and stimulating local economies.
Housing Observatory and technological governance
Among its strategic priorities, the new employers’ association highlights technological governance in support of urban coexistence. It points to the sector’s high level of digitalisation in areas such as access control, identity verification, noise monitoring and energy management. In this context, it will promote codes of conduct, compliance certifications and shared information systems, with the aim of turning short-term accommodation into a testing ground for data-driven urban policies.
From a legal and institutional perspective, Fevitur will adopt proportionality as a guiding principle and will work to ensure regulatory consistency across national, regional and municipal levels. It plans to collaborate with bodies such as the CNMC and the CEOE to promote fair competition, transparency and legal certainty, while avoiding regulatory overlaps and territorial imbalances.
Within this framework, Fevitur has announced the creation of the National Observatory for Housing and Temporary Mobility, conceived as a space for shared knowledge between the public and private sectors.
Position in Spain’s housing debate
Fevitur has also entered the current housing debate in Spain by presenting structural data. It points to strong population growth, a sustained collapse in housing construction—from 566,000 completed homes in 2006 to 102,000 in 2024—the near disappearance of social housing (barely 2.5% of the total stock), a shortage of serviced land and rising construction costs driven by geopolitical tensions, all of which have affected inflation and purchasing power.
In this context, the approximately 380,000 tourist-use dwellings account for just 1.4% of Spain’s total housing stock of 27 million homes. Within the rental market, the share of short-term rentals has declined from 13.2% in 2011 to 11.2% in 2025.
In addition, 10% of short-term dwellings are rented for brief periods by owners who live in them; 35% are second homes—rising to as much as 70% in much of the Mediterranean coast—and the remaining 55% are rented out as full units throughout the year.
Fevitur also notes that, in cities with the greatest rental pressure, these properties are on average around 15 m² larger than long-term rental homes, meaning they do not fall within the segment of greatest social need. According to the association, “recent technical studies confirm a marginal or negligible impact on the long-term rental market, while other factors, such as the growth in foreign residents, exert more significant pressure”.
The organisation concludes that its mission is to promote “smart regulation, based on data, proportionate and non-discriminatory, in line with the case law of the Spanish Supreme Court and the Court of Justice of the European Union”.