Spain has just slammed the brakes on rogue tourist rentals again — and landlords who love to skirt the law might want to sit down for this. Credit: Henry Harris, Shutterstock
Spain has just slammed the brakes on rogue tourist rentals again: New digital registry leaves landlords sweating.
Starting this Tuesday, July 1, every holiday flat, short-term let, and room-for-rent must get a government-issued licence plate — or rather, a digital registration number — before it can be listed online.
Dubbed the Ventanilla Única Digital de Arrendamientos (One-Stop Digital Rental Registry), this new holiday housing system is the Spanish government’s latest weapon in the war against housing fraud. The rules come after a six-month grace period that ended in a flurry of paperwork. Since January 2, nearly 200,000 owners have scrambled to sign up — but just 90,046 have been approved so far, with another 92,044 applications stuck in bureaucratic limbo.
The Ministry of Housing says this shiny new registry, which goes live in full force this July, aims to flush out fraudsters, force transparency, and cool a rental market that’s been boiling over.
And don’t think you can quietly list your secret Airbnbs — the law orders platforms like Airbnb, Booking, and others to clearly show registration numbers on every ad and report activity each month (or every three months for small platforms). They’re also on the hook for random checks to make sure every listing has its official ID.
A licence plate for flats
Think of the new registration number like your rental’s licence plate: it’s unique, mandatory, and good for just a year. When the clock runs out, landlords must reapply and show a list of anonymised rental contracts plus any changes in how they’re operating. Fail to comply? You might as well toss your keys in the bin — penalties include fines and, in severe cases, revocation of rental licences.
Speaking of fines, the PSOE has floated eye-watering penalties of up to €600,000 for platforms that fail to display these numbers on listings. That’s not a typo — six hundred grand. This proposal, part of a broader push by left-wing parties like Sumar, ERC, Bildu, Podemos, and BNG, aims to give short-term tenants the same protections as traditional renters. But the bill is still crawling through Congress.
Fraud fears — or fraud fighting?
The move comes amid growing anger that short-term and seasonal rentals are gobbling up apartments once meant for locals. According to Idealista data, permanent rentals fell 3% last year while seasonal lets soared 25%, sparking fears that landlords are using loopholes to dodge Spain’s rent control laws.
Meanwhile, Spain’s largest trade union, UGT, has filed a complaint with the Labour Inspectorate, blasting the short-term rental industry as “structurally fraudulent” and calling for deeper investigations, including the number of workers and employment conditions behind these lucrative flats.
But not everyone’s cheering. The Spanish Federation of Tourist Apartments (Fevitur) claims the registry will backfire by driving rentals underground, boosting the black market, and stepping on the toes of regional governments.
Thousands of dodgy listings axed
Still, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs isn’t wasting time. Recently, Booking.com purged 4,093 illegal ads after a direct order from the government, proving officials mean business when they say they’re cleaning house. Thousands more suspicious listings are under investigation.
And it’s not just tourist flats under the microscope: temporary rentals — often used to dodge tenant protections — have mushroomed, too. Many unsuspecting renters don’t even realise they’re signing short-term contracts that leave them with fewer rights.
What’s next?
While this new registry gives Spain a powerful tool to monitor rentals, there’s one glaring omission: no new national penalties have been finalised. For now, existing fines from state, regional, and city regulations apply, meaning landlords and platforms could face anything from a slap on the wrist to losing their right to rent.
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