There is no single Marbella answer to the 3/5 vote question. There is an Old Town answer, a Sierra Blanca answer, a Puerto Banús answer, a Nueva Andalucía answer, and a Marbella East answer — and each one is genuinely different. Marbella's apartment and villa stock spans every cohort from 1960s low-rise to post-2020 luxury phases, and its owner profile is the most international of any Costa del Sol municipality. The April 2025 amendment landed across all of that simultaneously, with predictably variable results.
This piece works through the sub-areas.
The rule, briefly
The April 2025 amendment to the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal requires a 3/5 majority of the comunidad's full ownership share — 60% of the roster, not just AGM attendees — to approve any new VUT licence in a community building. Existing pre-April-2025 licences are grandfathered.
In a market as heterogeneous as Marbella, the variable that matters most is which sub-area the building sits in. The rule is the same; the outcomes are not.
Old Town Marbella — pragmatic small-block votes
The casco antiguo around Plaza de los Naranjos and the streets running toward the Avenida del Mar — small six-to-twelve-unit walk-ups, often Spanish-owned, occasionally with a single foreign investor — has been the most pragmatic sub-area. AGMs have resolved most votes without protracted debate. Outcomes have varied roughly 60/40 in favour of permitting. The Old Town's comunidad culture is informal and decisions tend to reflect the building's actual operating reality.
Sierra Blanca, the Golden Mile, Lomas de Marbella Club — where the estatutos already prohibited
The elevated luxury cluster operates very differently from the rest of Marbella. Many comunidades here had pre-existing estatutos that prohibited short-term commercial use long before April 2025 — drafted in the 1990s and 2000s to preserve a residential character. The 3/5 vote is academic in these communities because the estatutos already prohibit, and changing estatutos requires unanimity rather than three-fifths.
For owners here, the binding question is rarely the 3/5 vote. It is whether the estatutos contain any clause that prohibits short-let. We have read estatutos for Lomas de Marbella Club and adjacent communities where the prohibition is explicit; we have read others where the prohibition is implied but contestable; we have read others where the estatutos are silent and the 3/5 vote is genuinely live.
Puerto Banús — heavily pro-vote
The apartment stock around the port and the immediate hinterland is heavily investor-dominated and historically tourist-focused. Vote outcomes have been strongly permissive — the comunidades here have essentially ratified an existing reality. We have not seen a Banús comunidad vote restrictively on the 3/5 question in 2025-2026.
Nueva Andalucía — genuinely mixed
The golf valley belt — Aloha, Las Brisas, La Quinta, the surrounding urbanizaciones — is the most genuinely variable Marbella sub-area on the vote question. Older established communities have tended pragmatic; the newer post-2010 phases (Magna Marbella, Aloha Hill releases) have leaned permissive. La Quinta itself has a mix of phase-specific estatutos that need reading individually.
Some Nueva Andalucía communities have voted explicit prohibition. Others have voted permissive with conditions (minimum stay, quiet hours, key handover protocols). The block-level read is essential here.
Marbella East — broadly permissive, with exceptions
Elviria, Las Chapas, Cabopino, the long stretch towards La Cala de Mijas — heavy British and Northern European ownership concentration. Vote outcomes have been broadly favourable for permitting, with exceptions in the more residentially-oriented blocks set back from the beach. Beachfront and golf-adjacent communities have leaned permissive.
The Marbella centre apartment belt
The stock between the casco antiguo and Puerto Banús — neither Old Town, nor gated estate, nor marina — is the most variable. Vote outcomes track the specific comunidad's owner profile and there is no useful sub-area-level generalisation.
What grandfathered means in Marbella
Existing pre-April-2025 VUTs are grandfathered. In a municipality where so many high-value gated communities are now effectively closed to new VUTs through their estatutos, a grandfathered licence in Sierra Blanca or an adjacent gated estate is genuinely scarce. The market has begun to price this distinction visibly.
The grandfathering is fragile. A missed Modelo N2, a lapsed VUT, or a botched transfer of ownership risks the licence falling back under the current regime. In a Sierra Blanca comunidad with prohibitive estatutos that would mean no path to replacement. We treat documentation for these properties with disproportionate care.
What buyers should check before offering
For Marbella, in this order:
- Identify the sub-area and the relevant question for that sub-area. Sierra Blanca / Golden Mile: estatutos first. Old Town: AGM minutes. Banús: confirm the vote happened (almost certainly favourable). Nueva Andalucía: block-level read. Marbella East: AGM minutes plus building character.
- Read the comunidad estatutos. In Marbella this is more important than in any other Costa del Sol municipality. A 3/5 vote does not unlock an estatutos prohibition.
- Read the past 24-36 months of comunidad minutes for any vote on tourist or commercial use.
- Verify any seller's claimed VUT against the Junta de Andalucía regional register.
- Confirm whether the comunidad has voted at all. Some Marbella comunidades have deferred the vote; the question may still be open.
What sellers should know
If you are selling a Marbella property with a grandfathered VUT in a comunidad that has since voted restrictively, or in a gated estate where the estatutos prohibit, that licence is unusually valuable. There is no path for a future buyer to obtain a new licence in that building. Keep the licence active through closing — file the Modelo N2 in any sale year — and document it for the sale dossier.
How we handle the question
For every Marbella property we consider managing we read both the estatutos and the past 36 months of comunidad minutes. The estatutos question is the more consequential one in this market: a building with a permissive comunidad but a prohibitive estatutos is not a short-let opportunity, regardless of what the 3/5 vote says.
If the estatutos prohibit, we say so plainly and discuss long-stay or capital-growth alternatives. If the comunidad has voted restrictively, we do the same.
