In a small Marbella Old Town block of eight units, a 3/5 community vote is one short AGM and a coffee at the bar afterwards. In a Fuengirola seafront tower with seventy-five units distributed across nine countries, it is something else entirely — a coordinated written-vote canvass that the administrador de fincas runs over six to eight weeks. Fuengirola has the densest apartment stock on the Costa del Sol per square kilometre, and that single fact has shaped how the April 2025 amendment has played out here more than any sub-area pattern.
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 before any new VUT licence can be granted in a community building. The threshold is on the full roster, not just AGM attendees, and existing licences from before April 2025 are grandfathered.
The rule did not distinguish between a small block and a large one. The practical experience does.
The Fuengirola-specific logistics
A typical 1970s or 1980s seafront block in Los Boliches, Torreblanca or Carvajal runs to forty, sixty, or eighty units. Many of those owners are absentee — second-home, retirement, investor — distributed across the UK, the Nordics, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, with smaller pockets from Russia and the Middle East. Assembling an AGM that physically clears 60% attendance in such a building is not realistic on any reliable cadence.
The response has been administrador-led written canvasses. Most of the major Fuengirola administradores de fincas have established digital-signature systems that allow the comunidad to collect a 3/5 majority over a defined window outside the AGM itself. The Spanish Civil Code permits written votes provided the procedure is properly noticed and the threshold is genuinely met. We have seen well-run canvasses clear the threshold in six to eight weeks. We have also seen poorly-run canvasses stall for six months, particularly where translations and contact information for non-Spanish owners are incomplete.
How outcomes have varied across the sub-areas
Los Boliches has been the most uniformly permissive sub-area. Heavily investor-held, long short-let tradition, comunidades that have always carried tourist traffic. Vote outcomes in 2025-2026 have leaned strongly in favour.
Torreblanca and Carvajal — the eastern Cercanías-served strip — is closer to a 50/50 investor-resident mix and outcomes have been more variable. Buildings with strong administrador-led communications have generally found majorities; buildings without have stalled.
Las Rampas, Plaza de la Hispanidad, the central commercial belt — mixed older-Spanish-owner blocks alongside more recently investor-acquired stock — has been the most genuinely variable. Older blocks with stable long-stay tenancies have sometimes voted restrictively; investor-heavy blocks have leaned permissive.
Doña Sofía / Doña Pepa and the seafront west towards Calahonda — primarily investor-held — has tended to vote permissive.
The hill and inland edge — lower density, smaller comunidades, more townhouse and semi-detached stock — has been pragmatic, usually settling at AGMs without long debate.
What grandfathered means in Fuengirola
Existing pre-April-2025 VUTs are grandfathered. Fuengirola has historically had one of the highest VUT densities per capita in Andalucía, and many of those licences pre-date the amendment.
A grandfathered VUT in a building that has since voted favourably is meaningful but not scarce. A grandfathered VUT in a building that has voted restrictively — typically a residential-oriented block away from the Cercanías-investor strip — is genuinely valuable, because there is no path for a future buyer to obtain a new licence in that building.
The licence transfers with the property on resale, provided the comunidad has not since voted prohibition. A lapsed licence — through a missed Modelo N2 over consecutive years, for instance — falls back under the current 3/5 regime for any reactivation.
What buyers should check before offering
For Fuengirola, in this order:
- Identify the building size. A 60-unit tower has a different vote dynamic than a 12-unit small block. The administrador de fincas can confirm the unit count and the comunidad's procedure.
- Read the past 24-36 months of comunidad minutes and any associated written-vote documentation. The 3/5 question may have been resolved outside an AGM.
- Confirm the comunidad's current procedural state — has a written canvass been completed, is one in progress, or is the next one scheduled? In Fuengirola this is often the most concrete signal.
- Confirm whether existing VUT licences exist in the building. The Junta de Andalucía maintains the regional register.
- Check the comunidad estatutos for any pre-existing clauses on short-term or commercial use.
- Ask the seller for VUT documentation if applicable.
What sellers should know
If you are selling a Fuengirola property with a grandfathered VUT in a comunidad that has since voted restrictively, that licence is unusually valuable. The Fuengirola transaction market has begun to price this distinction visibly. Document the licence, keep it active through closing — file the Modelo N2 in any sale year — and include all relevant comunidad documentation in the sale dossier.
If your building has not yet completed its 3/5 process, disclose the current procedural state. A buyer who later discovers the comunidad is mid-canvass and the outcome is uncertain has a legitimate concern.
How we handle the question
For every Fuengirola property we consider managing we read the past 36 months of comunidad documentation, contact the administrador de fincas to confirm the procedural state, and pull the comunidad estatutos. In larger blocks we also confirm whether a written-vote canvass has been completed and whether the threshold was genuinely met — a partially-completed canvass with an apparent majority is not the same as a fully-completed one.
If the comunidad has voted restrictively, we say so plainly and discuss long-stay alternatives. If the canvass is in progress, we hold off until it completes.
