This July, Spain became the first country in the EU implement the new European regulations on the single registry of short-term rentals.
The aim of this is to put a stop to fraud, as well as illegal tourist rentals that conflicts with citizens' right to affordable housing.
Landlords had until July 1st 2025 in order to register all tourist, temporary and seasonal rentals, but by July 2nd, almost half had failed to do so. This means that now, thousands of them do not have the right to advertise on platforms such as Airbnb or Booking.com.
READ ALSO: Nearly half of Spain's holiday lets not registered with government before deadline
Only once they have registered and have a special registration number will they be allowed to advertise and get customers.
Starting in August 2025, Airbnb has agreed to send the information required by to the Housing Department on a monthly basis, including the corresponding state and regional registration numbers.
It has also agreed to remove listings that show irregularities in the national registry or do not appear on it at all.
In these cases, the platform will notify hosts in advance, offering them a period of time to correct issue before proceeding with the final removal, unless its state registration number has been revoked, in which case it will no longer be included.
READ ALSO: Spain orders Airbnb to take down 66,000 holiday let ads
Back in May of this year, Spain's Ministry of Consumer Affairs asked Airbnb to take down 65,935 tourist accommodation ads from its website, which were in violation of regulations.
It is unclear yet how much overlap there is between these almost 66,000 listings already flagged for removal and those not registered on the government's registry, but on the day after the deadline there were 152,857 properties which didn't have the necessary registration code.
There are 368,295 short-term and temporary lets in Spain according to the country's National Statistics Institute (INE), although many believe that figure to be higher.
READ ALSO: Three reasons why homeowners are rejected by Spain's holiday let registry
The most common reason for a listing to be removed is for properties that have failed to provide their tourist license on the ad, which is mandatory in several regions across the country. This means that in all likelihood they were operating illegally.
Spain has been dealing with a severe housing crisis over the last few years, and tourist and seasonal rentals have been largely blamed for taking housing away from the general rental market for locals and contributing to skyrocketing prices.
GUIDE: How to register your tourist flat with the Spanish government
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