What to include in a corporate housing request for proposal in Málaga

Start with the assignment, not the apartment

Most of the delay in sourcing accommodation for an assignment comes from the first email. A corporate housing request for proposal that says "we need an apartment in Málaga for a senior engineer from March" will produce three quotes that cannot be compared, because each provider has guessed differently at the things you did not specify. Send the same brief with dates, headcount, work pattern, contracting entity and invoicing requirements, and you get proposals that sit side by side on one page.

The purpose of this article is to set out what a Málaga provider actually needs from you, and why each item changes the answer. It is written for the person who has to book the placement, not for a procurement exercise.

The core details every provider needs

These are the fields that determine whether a proposal can be issued at all. If you send nothing else, send these.

• Contracting entity. The legal name, registered address and VAT/tax number of the company that will sign and be invoiced. In Spain this matters more than in some markets, because corporate housing is contracted company to company and the invoice has to carry the correct fiscal details from the first month.
• Arrival date and expected duration. Give a target start date and a realistic end date, and say how firm each is. Providers price differently for a fixed period than for an open-ended stay with an extension option.
• Headcount and composition. One employee, two colleagues sharing, or an employee arriving with a partner and children. The bedroom count follows from this, and so does whether en-suite bathrooms matter.
• Number of placements. Say if this is one person or a cohort. Several people arriving in the same window can often be handled on one contract, and that changes both the administration and the shape of the quote.
• Where the employee will actually work. A daily commute to a business park is a different requirement from a role based in the historic centre, and it is the single most useful line in any brief.

Details that change the shortlist

Beyond the core fields, a handful of specifics decide which properties are genuinely suitable. Providers rarely volunteer these questions, so it saves a round trip to answer them upfront.

Work pattern. State whether the employee will work from the residence some or most of the week, and whether they take video calls that cannot be interrupted. Home-working changes the space requirement completely. It is worth saying whether a dedicated work area inside the residence is required, or whether a residents-only workspace in the building is acceptable.

Accessibility requirements. Step-free access, a ground-floor or lift-served entrance, an accessible bathroom. Ask early rather than discovering the constraint after a contract is drafted.

Car or no car. If the employee will drive, secure parking is not a nice-to-have in a central Málaga location. If they will not, walking distance to public transport and everyday shops becomes the deciding factor.

Any policy constraints from your side. Some mobility policies cap the number of bedrooms, require certain safety standards, or prohibit accommodation contracted in an individual's name. Say so in the request for proposal rather than in the approval stage.

Pets. Ask the question before the employee assumes the answer. Policies across corporate housing providers vary, and finding out late is a genuine problem for the assignee.

Ask commercial questions in the request, not after

The part of a corporate housing request for proposal that most often gets skipped is the commercial and administrative section. It is the part that costs you time later. Put these questions in writing and ask for written answers.

• What exactly is included in the monthly figure, and what is billed separately.
• How utilities are handled — whether they are managed by the operator and active on arrival, and whether any allowance or cap applies.
• Whether internet is dedicated to the residence or shared across a building.
• Whether parking is included and whether it is secure and on site.
• Whether cleaning is included, at what frequency, and what it covers.
• Whether one consolidated invoice is issued for multiple residences, or one per unit.
• Whether the invoice is a compliant Spanish VAT (IVA) invoice, issued monthly.
• Whether payment can be made by international corporate transfer, or a Spanish bank account is required.
• What legal framework the stay sits under, and who signs.

On that last point, stays for relocating employees in Spain are contracted under Title II of the Ley de Arrendamientos Urbanos as temporary housing (arrendamiento de vivienda temporal). The seasonal rental regime (arrendamiento por temporada under Title III) no longer applies to housing following Real Decreto-ley 29/2026, which came into force on 8 October 2026. Because this decree-law is subject to congressional validation, readers should check the position when signing. Furthermore, how the statutory definition applies where a company is the tenant and an employee is the occupant is not settled, so a Spanish lawyer should confirm the contractual framework. Ask the provider to confirm the legal structure in their proposal, while your company's adviser confirms the applicable VAT treatment.

Say what you need back, and by when

Give providers a response deadline and a format. Asking for the monthly figure, the inclusions list, the contract type and the earliest possible arrival date in a single reply makes comparison straightforward. It also tells you something about the operator: a supplier who answers a structured request within a day, in full, is likely to behave the same way when an employee's flight changes.

At Palacete 10, enquiries are answered within 24 hours, and proposals are issued for a single residence or for the whole building on one contract and one monthly VAT-compliant invoice. Lease terms are agreed per contract. The five residences and what each includes, the travel times to the airport, station and TechPark and the answers on leasing and invoicing are all published, so most of a request for proposal can be answered before you send it.

When you have the brief ready, send it over and we will come back with a written proposal.

Request a corporate proposal