Spain: Spain’s central government has issued a royal decree that will establish a single national register for short-term rental properties.
The law, which is due to come into effect on 2 January 2025, will make it obligatory for short-term rental properties to register with one central digital service and obtain a code for them to list on any platform such as Airbnb, Vrbo or Booking.com.
The decree was also signed by President Pedro Sánchez of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party [PSOE] and the Council of Ministers, as the government seeks to confront illegal renting and the ‘over-tourism’ phenomenon which has sparked widespread protests from citizens across the country who are concerned about available housing supply and the cost of living crisis.
Housing minister Isabel Rodriguez has not yet disclosed much about the new register but she said that the service would be in line with an incoming European directive that will require short-term rental properties to register on a national database.
Landlords will be obliged to obtain their registration number [to be renewed on an annual basis], submit the required information and provide online booking platforms with their code in order to list on them successfully. The platforms themselves must ensure that the landlords identify their properties with their own unique code and display them visibly on any listing.
The registration process will be carried out through Spain’s professional body for property registrars, the Colegio de Registradores.
In addition as part of the decree, millennial and Gen Z renters between the ages of 18 and 35 are set to receive a monthly stipend of €250 from the state to help them pay for their rent while many of Spain’s younger generations currently face high levels of unemployment.
Spain’s government has been taking steps this year to crack down on illegal short-term rentals and combat over-tourism in the wake of protests in popular tourism destinations across the country, including:
Madrid
The central government claims that 14,000 unregistered short-term rentals in the Spanish capital are currently being listed on booking platforms like Airbnb. It hopes that the measures it is enacting will return more than 10,000 properties to Madrid’s long-term rental market.
In April, Madrid City Council announced a temporary suspension on granting new holiday rental licences in the city with immediate effect – a suspension which looks likely to hold until 2025.
Barcelona
In June, Barcelona mayor Jaume Collboni, of the leftist Socialists’ Party of Catalonia, announced that the city’s government would introduce a ban on all short-term rentals for tourists by late 2028.
Malaga
Malaga is set to ban new short-term tourism rentals in 43 neighbourhoods of the city, following protests from local residents against an influx of remote workers, rising rental prices and a reduction in long-term affordable housing supply.
More than 41,000 properties are currently believed to be rented out to tourists in the province of Malaga.
Seville
In August, the office of the mayor of Seville announced plans to cut off the water supply to short-term rentals in the city that are being illegally rented out by property owners to tourists.
More recently, the council in the Andalusian city committed to introducing short-term rental licences, which will mean that no more than ten per cent of Seville’s properties can be rented out to tourists.
Valencia
Landlords operating unlicensed and black market short-term holiday rentals face having fines imposed of up to €600,000 as part of incoming regulations in the Spanish region of Valencia.
Canary Islands
A draft law was prepared across the archipelago of seven islands earlier this year which would ban new-build properties from the short-term rental market. Meanwhile, property owners with a permit will have five years to comply with the new rules, which also include obtaining authorisation from neighbours to rent out.