Can my building ban Airbnb in Colombia?

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Can my building ban Airbnb in Colombia today?

Yes. A building in Colombia can ban Airbnb-style short-term rentals, and apartments governed by propiedad horizontal generally need express authorization in the building regulations before they can legally operate as tourist accommodation.

That makes Colombia stricter than many owners expect. The starting point is not simply that you own the apartment and can rent it however you want. If the property sits inside a building or residential complex governed by propiedad horizontal, the national tourism framework requires the regulations to expressly allow tourist accommodation.

Decree 2590 established that principle years ago, and it remains part of the current compliance system. MinCIT's guidance for the Registro Nacional de Turismo asks operators of tourist dwellings inside a propiedad horizontal to declare that the unit is authorized for that activity by the building regulations.

The Consejo de Estado has also upheld the requirement against arguments based on private-property rights.

So yes, a building can keep Airbnb-style stays out. In many cases, the better question is whether short-term tourist rentals were ever legally authorized there in the first place.

Situation	Can short-term tourist rentals operate?	Why	Practical result
PH regulations expressly allow tourist accommodation	Potentially yes	Building authorization exists	Other tourism and local rules still apply
PH regulations say nothing about tourist accommodation	Generally no	Express authorization is required	Silence does not normally help the host
PH regulations expressly prohibit tourist accommodation	No	The proposed use conflicts with the registered rules	Building can enforce the restriction
Building permits tourist rentals but local rules prohibit them	No	PH approval cannot override municipal rules	Local authorities can intervene
Owner has an RNT but PH rules do not authorize the activity	No	RNT does not replace PH permission	Registration alone is insufficient

Why does Colombia treat an Airbnb differently from a normal apartment rental?

A Colombian Airbnb stay of less than 30 days generally falls into the tourist-accommodation regime, while a genuine longer-term residential lease follows a different set of rules.

Law 2068 defines vivienda turística around renting or subletting real estate for periods shorter than 30 days, with or without additional services. That is why a three-night or two-week apartment stay can trigger tourism rules even though the property itself looks like an ordinary home.

The booking platform does not decide the legal category. A tourist can book directly with an owner and still be receiving tourist accommodation. Someone can also find a six-month apartment through Airbnb without automatically turning that lease into a tourist stay.

For building disputes, duration and actual use matter far more than the Airbnb logo.

That is also why a sensible propiedad horizontal regulation usually talks about vivienda turística, alojamiento turístico, hospedaje or short stays. A rule written only around Airbnb would leave obvious room for the same apartment to move to Booking.com, Vrbo or direct reservations.

Example	Likely category	PH tourist authorization relevant?	RNT generally relevant?
Apartment rented for 3 nights	Tourist accommodation	Yes	Yes
Apartment rented for 2 weeks	Tourist accommodation	Yes	Yes
Apartment rented for 29 days	Tourist accommodation	Yes	Yes
Genuine six-month residential lease	Residential rental	Different regime	Normally no
Apartment repeatedly sold to tourists for short stays	Tourist accommodation	Yes	Yes

If my building rules say nothing about Airbnb, can I assume it is allowed?

No. In a Colombian propiedad horizontal, silence about tourist accommodation generally works against the Airbnb host.

This catches many owners by surprise. A common instinct is to search the regulations for a sentence saying that Airbnb is prohibited. If no ban appears, they assume they are free to proceed.

The tourism framework uses the opposite logic. The building regulations need to expressly contemplate the use of private units for tourist accommodation.

MinCIT currently applies the same principle when dealing with tourist-housing registration. The operator of a unit inside a propiedad horizontal must confirm that the regulations authorize that activity.

So if a regulation simply describes the apartments as residential and never authorizes tourist lodging, we would not treat the silence as permission.

That can settle a dispute before anyone even reaches questions about noise, parties or guest behavior.

What if my building regulations already allow Airbnb?

If the registered propiedad horizontal regulations clearly allow tourist accommodation, the building cannot normally wipe out that permission through a notice from reception or a unilateral decision by the administrator.

The wording of the registered regulations becomes crucial here.

Law 675 gives the owners' assembly the power to reform the statutes and property-horizontal regulations. Article 46 puts those reforms among the decisions requiring approval representing 70% of the building's total coefficients of copropiedad.

Once the reform is properly approved, it also has to be formalized as required for amendments to the registered property-horizontal regime.

That gives owners in an Airbnb-friendly building considerably more protection than owners in a building where tourist use was never authorized.

An administrator can enforce the rules already in force. Rewriting them is a different job.

If the registered document expressly says that private units may be used for tourist accommodation, a sign in the lobby saying "Airbnb prohibited from now on" is a pretty weak foundation for changing that legal position.

How many owners does a Colombian building need to ban Airbnb?

Changing the propiedad horizontal regulations generally requires owners representing 70% of the building's total coefficients of copropiedad.

The word coefficients is important. Colombia does not simply count one apartment as one equal vote for these decisions.

Each private unit carries a coefficient reflecting its participation in the property. A group representing 70 apartments out of 100 could therefore hold less than 70% of the coefficients, while a smaller number of larger units could represent more.

Article 46 of Law 675 specifically includes reform of the statutes and regulations among the decisions requiring the 70% qualified majority.

The existing wording still determines whether a new amendment is actually needed. If the registered rules already limit the units to residential use and never authorize tourist accommodation, management may simply be enforcing an existing restriction. A building that expressly permits tourist lodging and wants to remove that permission faces the much clearer task of amending its regulations.

Building decision	Relevant rule	What it means for Airbnb
Ordinary assembly matter	Normal Law 675 voting rules	May not be enough to rewrite the regulations
Reform of PH regulations	70% of total coefficients	Usually central to removing an express tourist-use permission
Change in generic destination of private units	70% of total coefficients	Can also become relevant depending on the reform
Administrator acts alone	No independent power to amend regulations	Administrator can enforce but cannot simply rewrite them
Council of administration acts alone	Limited by Law 675 and the regulations	Cannot bypass a reform that legally belongs to the assembly

Can the administrator or convivencia manual create an Airbnb ban?

An administrator or convivencia manual can enforce and regulate short-term rentals, but neither provides an easy shortcut for rewriting a registered right to use an apartment for tourist accommodation.

An administrator has real enforcement powers. If the regulations already prohibit tourist use, or if they never contain the authorization required by tourism law, the administrator can act on that existing legal position.

The manual de convivencia can also deal with the practical problems that often come with short stays: visitor identification, noise, parties, parking, rubbish, use of pools and other common areas.

The line gets much harder to defend when a building tries to use a house rule to change what private units are legally allowed to be used for.

If the registered property-horizontal regulations expressly permit tourist accommodation, we would expect a proper regulatory amendment rather than an administrator's email or a new paragraph quietly inserted into a convivencia manual.

This distinction has become even more relevant after the Constitutional Court's 2026 property-horizontal rulings. In T-182, the Court again stressed that decisions restricting residents' rights need a legal basis, must come from the competent body and must respect due process.

A building has substantial autonomy, but its management bodies still have to use the powers the law actually gives them.

Does having an RNT let me ignore my building's Airbnb rules?

No. An active Registro Nacional de Turismo does not override the propiedad horizontal regulations.

The current RNT system actually points the other way. When a tourist dwelling sits inside a propiedad horizontal, the operator must declare that the building regulations authorize the unit for tourist accommodation.

That makes PH authorization and tourism registration two separate compliance hurdles.

A host cannot safely argue, "The Chamber of Commerce gave me an RNT, so the building has to accept my Airbnb." The registration does not rewrite the building's registered regulations.

The same logic works in reverse. A building can allow tourist rentals while an individual operator still fails the national tourism requirements.

A legal short-term rental therefore has to clear several different gates at once.

Requirement	Who controls it?	Can another requirement replace it?	Typical problem
PH authorization	Registered building regulations	No	Tourist use is absent or prohibited
RNT	National tourism-registration system	No	Registration missing, suspended or inactive
Land use	Municipality or district	No	Tourist accommodation incompatible with the location
Building/use authorization	Local urban authorities	No	Approved use does not cover the activity
Tourism operating duties	National and local authorities	No	Guest, tax, safety or reporting obligations are missing

Can my building fine me or block my Airbnb guests?

A Colombian building can fine an owner for an unauthorized Airbnb when the violation and sanction have a proper legal basis, although management cannot punish residents however it wants.

Law 675 allows sanctions for breaches of non-financial obligations contained in the law or the property-horizontal regulations.

Successive fines may reach twice the offender's necessary monthly common expenses for each fine, with the combined amount capped at ten times those monthly expenses. The law also allows publication of certain infringements and restrictions on non-essential common facilities.

The procedure matters. The owner has to be given the protections required by Law 675, including a real chance to respond. The competent building body must impose the sanction, and the conduct being punished needs a legal or regulatory basis.

The Constitutional Court reinforced that point again in T-182 of 2026. It struck down a building sanction in a different type of dispute after finding serious due-process problems, including the lack of properly formalized rules and a meaningful opportunity to defend against the decision.

Guest access is more delicate. A building can apply lawful identification and security controls and can act against unauthorized tourist activity. Physical access to an owner's private property, however, cannot simply be treated as another optional amenity.

Law 675 specifically refers to restrictions on non-essential common facilities as a possible sanction. That gives buildings much firmer ground for restricting something like a recreational facility than for improvising a total denial of essential access to the apartment.

Enforcement tool	Can the building use it?	Main limit
Written compliance demand	Yes	Must relate to an actual obligation
Successive fines	Yes	Each fine up to 2× necessary monthly common expenses
Total accumulated fines	Yes	Capped at 10× necessary monthly common expenses
Restrict non-essential common facilities	Potentially	Must follow Law 675 and due process
Arbitrarily deny essential access to a private unit	Much harder to justify	Fundamental rights, competence and proportionality still apply

Does the administrator have to report an illegal Airbnb?

Yes. A property-horizontal administrator currently has a legal duty to report tourist accommodation that lacks the required PH authorization or RNT.

This takes an unauthorized Airbnb beyond a purely internal neighbor dispute.

Article 34 of Law 1558, as modified by Decree 2106, requires administrators to report these cases to the Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio when a tourist dwelling operates without authorization in the regulations or without registration in the RNT.

The rule also creates personal exposure for the administrator. Failure to report can lead to a fine of up to three monthly legal minimum wages.

The legislation separately states that a tourist-housing operator working without prior authorization in the registered PH regulations can face the sanctions established under Law 675, on top of consequences linked to the RNT.

So a cooperative administrator cannot safely solve the problem by saying, "The neighbors do not mind, so we will leave it alone."

This reporting duty is one reason informal tolerance offers less protection than some hosts think.

Can Airbnb remove a Colombian listing that does not comply with the rules?

Yes. A Colombian short-term-rental listing can run into platform problems when the underlying tourism registration or legal authorization fails.

Digital tourism platforms now sit inside Colombia's formal tourism system rather than operating completely outside it.

The regulatory framework requires platforms to work with RNT information and provides mechanisms for removing or disabling listings when registration requirements are not met or authorities issue the relevant orders.

That creates a practical link between what happens inside the building and what happens online.

If a host cannot legally satisfy the property-horizontal requirement, the problem can eventually move beyond fines or complaints from neighbors. It can also undermine the tourism registration that supports the listing.

For hosts who built their economics around near-continuous online occupancy, losing the ability to market the apartment is a much bigger problem than one warning letter from the administrator.

Can Medellín stop my Airbnb even if my building allows it?

Yes. In Medellín, express permission from the building currently clears only one part of the legal test for a short-term rental.

The city's latest guidance makes this unusually explicit.

Medellín says a short-term tourist dwelling in a propiedad horizontal needs express authorization in the building regulations. The city also tells operators to check whether the property sits in an area where the POT permits the activity and whether the relevant construction or use authorization supports short-term lodging.

The city currently points operators toward medium- or high-mix zones under its territorial rules. It also lists the RUT, commercial registration, SIRE and the accommodation-registration system among the other obligations that can apply.

This means an apartment can be perfectly welcome inside an Airbnb-friendly condominium and still have a municipal problem.

Medellín has started checking these layers together. Recent city work produced 93 technical reports involving possible urban-rule violations connected to issues such as incompatible land use, changes in destination, licensing and property-horizontal compliance. Authorities identified 34 locations in that group as lacking the required license.

That is a much stronger enforcement environment than simply waiting for a neighbor to complain about noise.

Compliance question in Medellín	Who answers it?	Can failure stop the rental?
Does the PH regulation allow tourist accommodation?	Building regulations	Yes
Is the operator registered in the RNT?	Tourism-registration system	Yes
Does the POT allow the activity at this location?	Medellín	Yes
Does the approved building use support short-term lodging?	Urban authorities / curaduría	Potentially
Are tourism, tax and guest-reporting duties being followed?	Relevant national and local bodies	Potentially

Is Medellín actually getting tougher on Airbnb buildings?

Yes. Medellín is currently moving from broad concern about short-term rentals toward much more concrete checks on where and how they operate.

The useful evidence is the breadth of what the city is checking.

Recent municipal guidance focuses simultaneously on PH authorization, RNT status, land use, construction or use permissions, foreign-guest reporting and other operating duties. El Poblado, Laureles-Estadio and La Candelaria are specifically identified as areas where short-term tourist housing has grown strongly.

City enforcement has also generated dozens of technical cases rather than a handful of symbolic inspections. The 93 technical reports mentioned above included possible violations across several different parts of the regulatory chain.

Medellín has separately reported dozens of requests tied to coexistence problems and checks of potentially irregular land use in areas with heavy tourist-rental activity.

For years, a host could look at a building full of active Airbnb listings and conclude that local practice mattered more than the paperwork. These days that is a much weaker assumption.

The national requirement for PH authorization has existed for years. What has changed is the amount of local attention given to the rest of the compliance chain.

Can my building ban every rental, or can I just switch to 30-day leases?

A building's power over tourist accommodation does not automatically give it the power to eliminate every normal residential lease, and a genuine longer-term rental can fall outside Colombia's sub-30-day tourist-housing definition.

This is where owners need to separate two very different activities.

Law 2068 uses periods below 30 days in its definition of vivienda turística. Someone who genuinely rents an apartment as a home for several months therefore sits in a different legal position from a host cycling tourists through the unit every few nights.

Property-horizontal rules still matter, and the apartment has to be used consistently with its legal destination. But a restriction on hotel-like tourist accommodation should not casually be read as a universal prohibition on ordinary residential leasing.

The 30-day threshold should not be treated as a guaranteed loophole.

Medellín authorities have recently warned about arrangements that appear to use longer contractual periods to disguise what is functionally short-term tourist accommodation.

A real six-month tenant living in the apartment is easy to understand. An operator receiving a constant flow of tourists while engineering contracts around a formal 30-day label creates a much less comfortable case.

We would look at the actual operation before assuming the paperwork settles it.

What if I bought my apartment because Airbnb was allowed?

Buying an apartment in an Airbnb-friendly building does not guarantee that tourist rentals will remain allowed forever.

This is one of the biggest risks that short-term-rental investors underestimate in Colombia.

Imagine buying a unit because the registered regulations expressly allow vivienda turística. The numbers work, the RNT is active and the building already has a reception system for guests.

The owners' assembly can still decide later to change the regulations. A reform of those regulations generally requires 70% of the total coefficients under Article 46 of Law 675.

That threshold is substantial. It also means an investor cannot assume that current permission is permanent.

The risk is especially visible in mixed buildings where full-time residents increasingly outnumber or organize against investor owners. Noise, security concerns, constant visitor traffic and disputes over common areas can eventually turn into an assembly vote.

An owner facing a later ban should check the vote carefully: who attended, what coefficients supported it, what exactly the resolution changed, whether the meeting followed the required procedure and whether the amendment was properly formalized.

A profitable Airbnb building can therefore become a conventional residential building without the investor voluntarily choosing to change strategy.

Can I challenge my building's Airbnb ban in court?

Yes. An owner can challenge an assembly decision that breaks Colombian law or the building's own regulations, but the normal deadline is short.

Article 49 of Law 675 allows owners, the administrator and the revisor fiscal to challenge assembly decisions that do not comply with the law or the property-horizontal regulations.

The current procedural rule comes from Article 382 of the Código General del Proceso. An action challenging an assembly act generally has to be filed within two months. If the decision is one that must be registered, the period runs from registration.

The court can also be asked to provisionally suspend the challenged act when the alleged violation can be shown from the decision, the applicable rules and the evidence submitted, subject to the procedural requirements.

The strongest challenge depends on what actually went wrong.

A building that obtained only 55% of the coefficients for a reform requiring 70% presents a very different case from an owner arguing broadly that no condominium should ever be allowed to restrict Airbnb.

The latter argument is much weaker. Colombia's legal framework already accepts express PH authorization as a condition for operating tourist housing.

Procedural defects, lack of competence, an invalid majority, conflicts with the registered regulations and serious due-process failures give an owner much more concrete ground to work with.

What should I check before buying a Colombian apartment for Airbnb?

Before buying an Airbnb apartment in Colombia today, we would read the registered propiedad horizontal regulations before trusting the seller's revenue screenshots.

The first thing to find is a clear clause authorizing tourist accommodation.

"Airbnb is common in this building" is weak evidence. So is a broker saying that security lets guests in every day. Existing listings can be non-compliant, tolerated temporarily or operating under documents the seller has misunderstood.

We would also ask for the latest registered amendments. An old regulation permitting tourist accommodation is not enough if a later amendment changed the rule.

Recent assembly minutes are nearly as useful. A building can still allow Airbnb while already moving politically toward a ban. If owners representing close to 70% of the coefficients have repeatedly supported restrictions, that risk belongs in the investment calculation.

Then come the external checks: active RNT, local land use, relevant building authorization and the other operating requirements for the city.

In Medellín, these checks deserve extra attention now because the city is actively looking at several parts of the compliance chain together.

A strong short-term-rental investment therefore needs good economics and durable legal permission.

What to check before buying	What you want to see	Red flag
Registered PH regulations	Express tourist-accommodation permission	Silence or residential-only wording
Latest registered amendments	No later restriction	Seller provides only an old version
Recent assembly minutes	Stable support for tourist rentals	Repeated attempts to prohibit them
Ownership coefficients	No obvious near-70% anti-Airbnb bloc	Ban vote already close to threshold
RNT	Active and consistent with the unit	Missing or irregular registration
Municipal land use	Tourist use compatible with location	Residential-use conflict
Building/use authorization	Activity fits authorized use	Unapproved change of destination
Actual building operation	Clear guest procedures with few disputes	Constant complaints or enforcement fights

So, can my building really ban Airbnb in Colombia?

Yes. Colombian propiedad horizontal rules can keep Airbnb-style tourist rentals out of a building, and the current legal framework gives those rules real force.

The clearest case is a building whose registered regulations expressly prohibit tourist accommodation. The host has very little room to argue that an Airbnb listing or RNT overrides that restriction.

Silence can be almost as problematic. Colombia requires express authorization for tourist accommodation inside a propiedad horizontal, so an owner should not assume that the absence of the word "Airbnb" creates permission.

Owners are in a stronger position when the registered regulations already authorize tourist use. Removing that permission normally requires a proper reform, with the 70% qualified majority required by Law 675 and the corresponding formalities. An administrator cannot simply rewrite the rule alone.

Even an Airbnb-friendly building does not settle the whole question. RNT registration, local land use, authorized building use and other tourism duties still matter. Medellín's current enforcement push shows how quickly those separate requirements can converge on the same apartment.

Our conclusion is firm: yes, your building can ban Airbnb in Colombia. Before asking whether management has the power to stop you, check the registered propiedad horizontal regulations. In many disputes, that document already tells you which side starts with the stronger legal position.

Fact-checked and reviewed by our local expert

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Franca Berta

Marketing Specialist, KasaFinder

Through her work with KasaFinder, Franca Berta has developed a strong understanding of Uruguay’s real estate market and the opportunities it offers international buyers. From Montevideo to Punta del Este and other coastal markets, she helps bring clarity to a market known for its stability, lifestyle appeal, and growing interest from foreign investors.

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