Lodging the rental deposit in Spain: where and by when in each region.

The deposit: compulsory throughout Spain

Article 36 of the Urban Leases Act 29/1994 (LAU) requires a cash deposit to be asked for and paid when the lease is signed: one month's rent for homes and two for other uses. For the first five years (seven if the landlord is a company) it is not updated, although at each renewal the landlord can ask for it to match the current rent and the tenant can ask for it to be reduced. At the end, any balance due back earns statutory interest if a month passes after the keys are returned without it being refunded. Public bodies are exempt when the rent comes out of their budgets.

Lodging: each region decides

The LAU's third additional provision lets regions require landlords to lodge the deposit amount, without interest, with the regional administration or a designated body until the lease ends. If the administration does not refund it within a month of the end, statutory interest accrues. Since 2019, the same provision requires regional rules to ask at least for details of the parties, the property (address, year built, floor area, cadastral reference and energy rating) and the lease (annual rent, term, update method, deposit and extra guarantees, utilities and whether it is furnished).

New in October 2026: Royal Decree-law 29/2026 of 6 October, still awaiting ratification by Parliament, amends section 5 of article 36 (tenants cannot be required to take out rent-default insurance or similar cover, and for temporary lets the extra guarantee cannot exceed one month) and adds a section 7 on an end-of-lease document signed by both parties. It does not change the legal deposit or the third additional provision, so the lodging rules in this guide stay the same.

1. Deadlines run from 15 days to two months. Ceuta and Melilla are the strictest; Aragon and Catalonia the most generous. And they are not always counted the same way: calendar days, working days or «one month from signing».
2. Not every lease is covered. In the Basque Country, for example, rooms, parking spaces and sublets are excluded; in Catalonia, by contrast, rooms must be lodged from July 2026; in Madrid a parking space on its own is not lodged.
3. Bulk schemes change things for large portfolios. Instead of one deposit per lease, a percentage of the total is paid in and settled periodically. Requirements range from five leases in Madrid to ten properties in the Basque Country or 25 leases in Catalonia.
4. Re-letting is not handled the same way. Madrid lets you offset the old deposit against the new one and pay only the difference; Catalonia does not allow offsetting and requires refunding one and lodging the other.
5. The administration's refund has its own deadlines. From one month in Andalusia or the Valencia region to three months in the Basque Country. Your deadline with the tenant, however, is always one month from the return of the keys.

And where there is no lodging?

In Asturias, Cantabria, Extremadura, Murcia, La Rioja, Navarre (until 2027) and Andalusia (for leases from 24 January 2026) a deposit is still required, but it never leaves private hands. The landlord or the managing agent holds it and is responsible for returning it on time. For a firm with owners in several regions, that means juggling deposits lodged with different bodies and deposits held in-house, each with its own rules.