The Government of Spain has approved in the Council of Ministers the Royal Decree regulating the procedure of the Single Registry of Leases and creating the Single Digital Window of Leases for the collection and exchange of data related to short-term accommodation rental services.
Once published in the Official State Gazette, Spain will become the first country in the European Union to implement the Regulation regarding the European Parliament and the Council, of April 11, 2024.
The Regulation establishes the obligation for Member States to create an information system on short-term rentals, through a registration system and obtaining an identification number for the short-term rental of a home.
The Minister of Housing and Urban Agenda, Isabel Rodríguez, committed in May of this year to implement it before the end of 2025, one year before mandated by the European Regulation. After accelerating the administrative procedures, it will finally come into force on January 2, 2025, and its application will be effective from July 1, 2025, after the transition period for companies and administrations to adapt to the provisions of the rule.
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The Royal Decree establishes a series of obligations and regulations regarding information that apply to short-term accommodation rental services when Member States have established registration procedures for units located in their territory.
The objective scope includes both the services provided by platforms online to hosts who provide short-term accommodation rental services in Spain, regardless of the place of establishment of said platforms, as well as the rental services provided by the hosts.
Tourist, seasonal, and room rentals
The purpose of the rule is the regulation of the Single Registry of Leases procedure, the creation of the Single Window Digital Leases as a digital gateway for the electronic transmission of data between online short-term rental platforms and the competent authorities, as well as to report on the different uses, regulation and destinations of the units dedicated to short-term rental throughout the national territory.
The Royal Decree defines what a short-term rental is, its different formulas and the natural or legal persons involved in these operations, in addition to the platforms where they operate.
The rule, therefore, operates on tourist rentals, seasonal rentals, room rentals or other properties that allow short-term accommodation and that involve financial remuneration, as long as they are offered through transactional online platforms.
Short-term rental services may fall on the entirety of an urban property or part of it, and will also include accommodation in ships, boats or naval artifacts, provided that it is not linked to a service that enables or determines navigation, in which case it will always be governed by the applicable legislation.
This type of rental services must derive from temporary causes, such as vacation or tourism, work, studies, medical treatment or any other that does not imply a need for permanent housing of the lessee, in accordance with article 3 of the same rule.
In addition, they must have equipment, furniture and utensils suitable to meet the temporary use of the unit in accordance with the Regulation.
The lessors are obliged to obtain a registration number, provide the required information, respond to information requests, update it when there is a change in some of them and communicate to the online platforms the registration number that has been assigned by the Land Registry or the Movable Property Registry.
And, the platforms, for their part, are obliged to ensure that in their applications lessors identify their homes by this number, guarantee that lessors can include it in the advertisements and that it is visible in the advertisements; carry out random and periodic checks and inform the Window of the results of said checks when they are negative.
In addition, they must inform the lessors of the registration procedure; collect and transmit monthly to the Window the activity data per unit, together with the registration number provided by the lessors, the address of the unit and the URLs of the advertisements published by machine-to-machine means of communication; finally, they must comply within forty-eight hours with the administrative resolutions that order the elimination or disabling of advertisements linked to a suspended or withdrawn registration number.
The Royal Decree comes into force on January 2, 2025, deploying the effects of its provisions on July 1, 2025, so that there is sufficient time to make the necessary technological and functional adaptations by all the actors involved in compliance with the rule.
Until the approval of a sanctioning regime for the infractions that are regulated derived from this rule, the sanctioning regimes and obligations contemplated in the state, regional and local regulations will be applicable.
Application and verification of the registration number
The procedure to request the registration number will be carried out through the electronic headquarters of the Association of Registrars or in the competent Land Registry or Movable Property.
The application will contain the specific address of the property and its unique registry code, its cadastral reference or if it is a boat or other type of accommodation included in the Royal Decree; also if a property is rented in its entirety or a part and the maximum number of tenants that can be accommodated in it. On the other hand, if this unit is subject to any authorization or prior administrative registration regime, such as a license, the document that proves it.
Also, detail the identification of the category and types of lease, where there are three groups: properties, rooms or partial units of a property intended for non-tourist short-term rental; on the other hand, the same as the previous one, but with a tourist destination; and, in third place, for floating boats or other properties that allow short-term accommodation.
Each unit may only have one registration number per category and type of lease. The Land Registry or Movable Property will proceed to the automatic and immediate assignment of a registration number.
Once it has been verified that the requirements are met, the registration number will be recorded and communicated to the interested party.
If there are defects in the documentation provided and the interested person does not correct them within the following seven business days, the validity of the registration number will be suspended, which the General Directorate of Planning and Evaluation of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda will communicate to all online short-term rental platforms to eliminate or disable access without delay.
Every twelve months, an informative model of short-term leases must be provided for each category and type of lease and that will include, at least, an anonymized list of the leases constituted, as well as those whose primary destination is one other than that of housing lease regulated in article 2 of the LAU, deriving from temporary causes.