The Ministry of Social Rights, Consumption and Agenda 2030 has demanded that two major vacation rental platforms remove 8,318 listings of tourist accommodations offered as seasonal rentals, considering that they violate the Urban Leasing Law following its recent modification through Royal Decree-Law 29/2026, approved on October 6 in the Council of Ministers.
As explained by the department headed by Pablo Bustinduy, the General Directorate of Consumption has detected that more than 8,300 listings would be irregular by promoting tourist homes as seasonal contracts that allow stays of less than 31 days, when the reformed regulation sets that period as the minimum duration for this type of rental.
The main focus of this possible infringement is concentrated in the Community of Madrid, where most of the questioned offers are located: 6,772 listings in total. Of these, 6,523 correspond to homes located in the city of Madrid.
The Ministry emphasizes that this intervention has been made possible thanks to Royal Decree-Law 29/2026, which introduces, among other measures, the limitation of seasonal rentals to a minimum of 31 days.
The General Directorate of Consumption understands that these listings could constitute an unfair communication practice by inducing error and, consequently, violate Article 47 of the TRLGDCU (Consolidated Text of the General Law for the Defense of Consumers and Users).
For this reason, Consumption has formally requested both platforms to withdraw the listings through the notification mechanisms provided in the Digital Services Regulation.
Once notified, the platforms assume direct responsibility for the possible reported non-compliances, in accordance with European regulations. If they do not remove the flagged listings or do not block access to them, they are exposed to the opening of a sanctioning file by Consumption.
Other actions by Consumption in the housing market
This new requirement for the tourist rental platforms is part of the Ministry's strategy to curb illegal practices related to housing.
In this line, Consumption has already imposed a fine of 64 million euros on the platform Airbnb for offering thousands of tourist accommodations that did not comply with the regulations, which resulted in the removal of more than 65,000 listings from its website.
Likewise, Booking removed more than 4,000 ads that did not comply with the law after receiving an official request from Consumer Affairs.
In addition, the Ministry fined the real estate company Alquiler Seguro 3.6 million euros for abusive practices against its tenants. In this case, Consumer Affairs noted six violations classified as very serious and one as serious for violating consumer rights and taking advantage of its dominant position in the market.
For similar conduct, Consumer Affairs has an open case against another large real estate company that also manages the rental of thousands of homes throughout Spanish territory.