The Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda has urged the autonomous communities to follow the path set by the property registrars and to speed up verifications on seasonal rentals, after the Supreme Court ruling that has struck down the single state registry of short-term leases by understanding that the State does not have the competence to do so.
The high court has rendered this measure, provided for in Royal Decree 1312/2024 of December 23, ineffective, considering that "it overlaps with existing regional registries regarding the registration of properties intended for tourist rentals."
Sources from the Ministry of Housing indicate that, with this resolution, the Supreme Court places the management of tourist and seasonal accommodation registries in the hands of the autonomous communities and that, therefore, it is up to these administrations to "ensure compliance with the norm," preventing what "has been happening" in territories like Andalusia from recurring, where "a responsible declaration is enough to register a tourist apartment and then no one checks if the norm is complied with."
At the same time, the department celebrates that the Supreme Court has supported the digital single window promoted by the Government to "end fraud in tourist and seasonal rentals," a tool that "facilitates the removal of accommodations that do not comply with regulations."
The digital single window and the fight against fraud
The Ministry of Housing emphasizes that this is a "good measure" that, since its entry into force on July 1, 2025, has allowed the detection of more than 111,000 irregular rental contracts, mostly linked to tourist use.
In this regard, it highlights that, thanks to the Ministry's action and cooperation with online platforms, these accommodations have ceased to be marketed.
Since the system was launched, more than 340,000 homes have been registered, of which 258,000 correspond to tourist apartments and 83,000 to seasonal rentals.
The Ministry also recalls that the "uncontrolled expansion of tourist apartments directly collides with the right to housing," especially when it comes to illegal accommodations.
Therefore, it states that it is "exploiting to the maximum" its powers to withdraw this type of offers from the market, although it insists that it is the autonomous communities and city councils who must inspect the homes, close them when appropriate, and adopt measures for them to return to the residential stock.
This regulation conforms to community regulations that develop Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 of the European Parliament and of the Council, of April 11, 2024, which imposes on Member States the obligation to articulate an information system on short-term rentals through a registry and the assignment of an identification number for this type of leases.
The Supreme Court strikes down the single registry but endorses the single window
The Supreme Court has partially upheld the appeal promoted by the Generalitat Valenciana, annulling only the articles that gave life to said registry, but keeping in force the provisions related to the digital single window, the obligations for online platforms to submit data, and the transfer of information for statistical purposes.
To do this, it has examined different jurisdictional titles and concludes that the new registry lacks coverage in all of them, according to the ruling: civil legislation and regulation of public registries and instruments (article 149.1.18 of the Spanish Constitution), basic conditions that guarantee the equality of all Spaniards in the exercise of rights and in the fulfillment of constitutional duties (article 149.1.1), bases and coordination of the general planning of economic activity (article 149.1.13) and statistics for state purposes (article 149.1.31).
In the Supreme Court's opinion, at this point it is a single registration procedure related to real estate, or parts thereof, without the jurisdictional title of article 149.1.8 of the Spanish Constitution (on the regulation of public registries) being "suitable" to protect a procedure and registration of these characteristics.
It also rules out that it can be supported by the title "Bases and coordination of the general planning of economic activity" (art. 149.1.13), since it understands that the regulation goes beyond simple "bases" or "coordination measures", configuring a closed regulation of a state registry that overlaps with existing autonomous registries.
On the contrary, the ruling does recognize the State's competence to design the digital one-stop shop, coordinate the different one-stop shops, require data transmission by online platforms, and collect information for statistical purposes, relying on its competences of "coordination of general economic activity planning (art. 149.1.13) and "statistics for state purposes" (art. 149.1 31).
The single registry for short-term rentals came into force on January 2, 2025, although its use was not mandatory until July 1 of the same year, once the transitional period for companies and administrations to adapt to the provisions of the rule had ended.