Spain will officially implement its new register on Tuesday (July 1), requiring all properties used for tourism and short-term holiday rentals to have a mandatory registration code to operate legally. These laws are being implemented to bring the country in line with European regulations.

The new unified register for short-term lets, covering holiday rentals, seasonal accommodation, and room rentals, found on sites like Airbnb and Booking.com, will become fully effective from tomorrow, following the end of the transition period, including in both the Balearic and Canary Islands. According to figures released by Spain’s Ministry of Housing, a total of 199,686 applications have been received to date, the vast majority for tourist rentals. Of these, 90,046 registrations have already been approved, while 17,596 were rejected. Just over 92,000 registrations are still under review by the Association of Property Registrars.

Unsurprisingly, most applications (nearly 157,000) relate to holiday rental properties and are heavily concentrated in areas such as Málaga, Gran Canaria, Tenerife, Alicante, the Balearic Islands, and Barcelona, hotspots in Spain that are incredibly popular with tourists.

There has been a surge in applications in the last month, reflecting both the urgency among property owners to obtain their mandatory code and the scale of the short-term rental market across the country.

This new register, introduced on January 2, aims to combat fraud and clamp down on illegal tourist accommodation. It comes amid a national housing crisis marked by a shortage of supply, rising prices, and growing difficulties for residents, especially young people and vulnerable groups, to access long-term housing. By launching this system, Spain becomes the first country in the European Union to implement this regulation, setting a precedent for others.

In practice, this new law means that from tomorrow, all properties offered for tourist or seasonal rentals must have an official registration code. This applies to holiday homes, seasonal lets, room rentals and even other forms of short-term accommodation such as motorhomes and boats, provided they are offered for payment and promoted on online platforms.

The registration process is managed through the Property and Movable Goods Registry. Once approved, owners receive a unique registration number, which must be clearly displayed on any online platforms used to advertise the property. From July 1, any property without this code cannot legally be listed or rented through online platforms.

While the new laws largely affect property owners and rental platforms, tourists who have properties booked for tomorrow onwards or those planning to book last-minute getaways are now being urged to check the details of the listing carefully to ensure that the mandatory code has been displayed on the advert. Those who do not may be operating illegally.

Rental platforms like Airbnb are also subject to strict new duties, including ensuring landlords provide their registration numbers, making sure these numbers are visible in listings, carrying out random checks and reporting irregularities. They must also transmit detailed data on rental activity each month to Spain’s new “single digital window”, which centralises registration and data monitoring. For smaller platforms and micro-platforms, data submission will be quarterly.

It is hoped that this sweeping reform will bring greater transparency to the booming Spanish short-term rental market.