Letting licence Tenerife: If you wish to rent out in the short term, i.e. for short periods to tourists via, for example, popular online platforms such as booking.com, airbnb, etc., your property must meet a number of essential basic conditions. This, of course, to guarantee a minimum of safety to the tenant, but also to prevent fraudulent online offers.

But what are these rules for renting in Tenerife? We would like to give a short and simple answer to this, but unfortunately this is not possible. You will have to take a number of things into account, which we will explain:

One of the essential rules for renting out in Tenerife is that you must have a rental permit or a licence. You must be in possession of a VV number on the Canary Islands, the Vivienda Vacacional. This is a number that will be issued to you when you have completed the relevant documents for the application, paid a tax and submitted everything to the relevant competent authority.

This application form is a sworn declaration that you are in possession of all relevant documents required. Which documents? These are included in a nominative list on the application form. Among other things, you must ensure that the rental is permitted where you wish to do so. This is checked by the municipality and they will issue a document for this and you must be in possession of the “licencia de primera ocupación/cédula de habitabilidad” of the property. These two often cause problems, because they are simply not available and thus result in higher costs to obtain them, or an impossibility to obtain them. We need to look at this individually with you and the documents you already have. If your property is located in a complex, you must also make sure that short-term rentals are not prohibited by the “comunidad”.

Requesting and submitting the necessary documents will be done through your Spanish digital token (Clave Digital). We can arrange for you to receive the Clave Digital, so that you do not have to go to all the instances yourself and stand in the long queues. This digital token is valid for 2 years and will then have to be renewed/applied for again. This is therefore necessary for correct communication with the Spanish government authorities and for the initial application and obtaining the VV license. Although we will file your tax returns through our “special” token as an authorized office, we still recommend that you always have a valid personal Spanish digital token, as this will facilitate communication between you and the various Spanish authorities.

You will have to pay taxes in Spain on the income arising from the rental of real estate located here. This is usually 19% for EU nationals and 24% for non-EU nationals on the net rental income.

You can read more information about the taxes on the rental on our taxes on the rentalincome page.

Before you can and may rent out in the Canary Islands, you must take the following steps:

• Request your Clave Digital (digital token) so that we can communicate with the necessary services on your behalf.
• Register with the Canary tax authorities because you will have to pay IGIC on your rental. (subject to exceptions)
• Register with the Police/Guardia Civil, because you must always report your guests to the police services upon check-in.
• Complete and submit the “Déclaración Responsable”. This is your declaration of honor that you have all the required documents and that your property also meets rental standards.

This procedure is included in our BASIC VV PACKAGE and can usually be arranged by us within a month, so that you can start your rental as soon as possible. The costs are 450€ + IGIC; excluding external costs (Clave Digital = 25€ for a private individual). Contact us so we can help you!

Apart from the above, you will also need to be in possession of the following 2 documents:

• Licencia de primera ocupación/cédula de habitabilidad. This is the document that was handed over when the property was delivered and that proves that the property is habitable. If you don’t have it, you still need to get it.
• Informe urbanistico. This is an approval by the municipality that the location of your property complies with spatial planning and that it can therefore be rented out.

If you do not have these documents, you may incur a fine upon inspection, as they are part of the documentation that you must have in order to be allowed to rent out.

We can provide this, but this is at a separate cost and will depend on the municipal costs and taxes and the work we have for this and is difficult to quantify exactly in advance.