The Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and the 2030 Agenda has urged two platforms advertising tourist use dwellings to remove 8,318 advertisements for tourist accommodations offered as seasonal rentals because they would be in breach of the Urban Leases Law, recently modified by Royal Decree-Law 29/2026 approved on October 6th by the Council of Ministers.
Specifically, the ministry headed by Pablo Bustinduy, has identified, through the Directorate-General for Consumer Affairs, that these more than 8,300 advertisements would be illicit by advertising tourist dwellings as seasonal accommodations for which bookings of less than 31 days are permitted, which is the minimum duration for this type of contract established by law after the recent modification.
A potential infringement that has been detected especially in the Community of Madrid, since the majority of these advertisements that would be breaching the law, 6,772 in total, correspond to accommodations located in this autonomous community. Of those 6,772, 6,523 are in the city of Madrid.
This action has been possible thanks to the Council of Ministers approving a specific regulation again in the first week of October to prevent these actions, the aforementioned Royal Decree-Law 29/2026, which involves, among other regulations, limiting the offer of seasonal rentals to 31 days.
The Directorate-General for Consumer Affairs considers that these advertisements could constitute a deceptive unfair commercial practice and, therefore, an infringement of article 47 of the TRLGDCU (the Consolidated Text of the General Law for the Defense of Consumers and Users).
Therefore, the Directorate-General for Consumer Affairs has requested the removal of these advertisements from both platforms through the notification mechanisms provided for in the Digital Services Regulation.
Once informed, these platforms would become directly responsible for the potential reported offenses as established by European regulations. And in case of not removing these advertisements or blocking their access, they could face the opening of an investigation by Consumer Affairs.
Other actions by Consumer Affairs regarding housing
This new request by Consumer Affairs to platforms offering accommodation rentals is part of the actions undertaken by the ministry headed by Pablo Bustinduy to put an end to illegal practices that are contributing to the housing crisis in Spain.
With this objective, Consumption already fined the Airbnb platform 64 million euros for offering thousands of tourist accommodations that did not comply with regulations, which led to the removal of more than 65,000 listings on this portal. And, likewise, another platform, Booking, removed more than 4,000 listings that did not comply with the law after an official request from Consumption.
On the other hand, the ministry led by Pablo Bustinduy imposed a fine of 3.6 million euros on the real estate company Alquiler Seguro for abusive practices against its tenants. On this occasion, Consumption identified six infractions classified as very serious and one as serious for violating consumer rights and taking advantage of its dominant market position. And for similar practices, Consumption maintains an open investigation into another large real estate company that also rents thousands of properties throughout Spain.
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