Apologies in advance if this is covered elsewhere, although I have looked.

My wife and I are looking to take up a rental in Andalucia during Autumn 2022/Winter 2023 in what I hope is a sensible, first step towards ultimately buying a property and relocating.

The difficulty is that we are restricted to the 90 day rule and I don't know to what extent owners are prepared to entertain a 2-3 month rental? Initial e-mail enquiries to a couple of property companies have not even produced an acknowledgement. Are owners only likely to consider 6 or 12 month minimum terms?

I also get the impression looking at some of the generic property sites (Idealista and ThinkSpain) that they are advertising attractive looking properties which are not actually available in the hope of pulling in renters to more, shall we say, harder to shift properties.

Also, I'm not sure what sort of additional charges we might expect to incur in respect of both the initial rental agreement as well as ongoing property costs. For example, does the landlord normally pay a 'finder's fee' to the rental company or is it the party taking out the rental - or both? What does the rental figure normally include and exclude?

Specifically, can anyone recommend a reliable rental company for the Malaga and Granada provinces?

Any information gratefully received.

Have you looked initially at something like AirBnB to compare costs when they have quite large discounts for monthly and more rentals? Plus, no hassle with contracts and commissions and such like.

A good search option are holiday rental sites or, as suggested AirBnB . Summer lets often offer cheap rates in the winter just to keep the property occupied. We did this, trawling the various sites checking the booking calendar on properties we liked then sending off an email to the owner - some replied.In the end we found one prepared to do a deal for two months.
Long term rentals invariably minimum 1 year or 2 and will require such things as an upfront deposit , normally two months with the first month's rental so a total of 3 months needed once contract signed. Sites such as Idealista are slow to remove properties and demand is quite high so expect to see properties that have actually already been rented. Once signed you are normally locked in to a contract for a minimum of 6 months and can lose your deposit if you leave before that deadline.
Agents normally charge a one-off fee to the owners.
Expect the owner to pay community fees, local taxes etc leaving the tenant with utility bills.

Landlords looking to rent properties on a full time basis are not going to accept those looking to rent for 2 to 3 months.
You should definitely be looking at vacation rentals ......not those for permanent/longterm renting

Winter lets of 3-4 months between October to April (before Holy Week) are quite common in resort areas. Here in Nerja, look out for winter lets in the listings of letting agents such as Nerja Property Services - Property For Sale | Houses For Long Term Rental | Holiday Rentals and Welcome to Nerja Properties | Nerja Property Rentals. They are both long-established, reputable businesses.

Thanks all, the information is really helpful and makes perfect sense. I hadn't thought of AirBnB but it looks a really good option. Also the idea of targeting holiday properties for winter rentals.
I can see what I need to do to now to refocus our search.

This is the site we used :
https://www.holidaylettings.co.uk/an..._sleeps_max.2/

Good luck

There are plenty of nice places in Jerez if you are thinking of coming this direction. I can recommend City10 here in Jerez who do sales and rentals. There are a lot of short term lets available here. My friend and his wife have must arrived this week for 3 months and they got a property on my street which is one of the best locations in Jerez for 3 months no problem.

It is normal that you pay a months deposit, a month to the rental agency and the landlord also pays a month to the rental agency. Real estate is clearly profitable in Spain......

Idealista is quite good for leads here but you need to be on the ground to go and check them out as some look great in photos and turn out to be right flop houses!

Hi, just hopping on the back of this post if anyone has any advice.

My husband and I are in the process of applying for a NL visa (appointment next month) to relocate in April for a year and are looking for a long term rental close to Malaga city. I’ve been using Idealista but it looks like very slim pickings for a furnished property that’s in a good condition with a bit of space. Is this website Spain’s equivalent of Rightmove / zoopla? Are there any other decent websites anyone can suggest as this ones a bit rubbish.

On the off chance does anyone on here happen to work in this industry and can provide some assistance or recommend any agents from past experience?

Thanks in advance for anyone that can help

You could, in fact, try 'Rightmove' as they do have Spanish properties.

https://www.fotocasa.es/es/comprar/v...as-las-zonas/l

Fotocasa another option although like Idealista does suffer from the problem of agents/owners leaving adverts on the site even though property sold. Try searching and jotting down the agents who have properties you like in the right area ( even though they may not be available any longer ) and then contacting the agent directly.
Note that in some areas, e.g. Costa del Sol all agents use the same database just depending on which one they subscribe to will influence what they have on offer - the bigger agents will subscribe to more than one.
When we were searching working with one agent very common to have a second agent in tow during a visit as the property was not actually on our agent's database but listed by someone else.