The year 2025 was marked by an unprecedented regulatory shift in the short-term rental market. The introduction of the Single Registration Number fundamentally transformed how landlords, rental managers and platforms operate, compelling thousands of properties to regularise their status to continue listing on portals where monetary transactions take place.
The rollout of the Short-Term Rental Registry and the Digital One-Stop Shop turned what had been an administrative formality into the gateway to participation in the tourism market – or exclusion from it. For the first time, all properties intended for holiday, short-term or room rentals were required to register with the property registries. The new system acts as a snapshot of the sector, revealing who is renting, how they are doing so and under what type of authorisation.
The registry does more than classify properties: it outlines uses, requires a separate number for each activity and introduces annual compliance checks. While certain exemptions apply – such as hotels, rural accommodation regulated at the regional level or traditional long-term rentals – the overarching rule is clear: properties cannot be listed on digital platforms where contracts are concluded and payments processed if they do not have a registration number.
Regulatory tensions intensified once it became clear that the Land Registry had the authority to block tourist accommodation even where a valid regional licence was in place. A clear example was a case in which a homeowner who had operated a tourist apartment for decades saw his application rejected because the bylaws in the autonomous community where he lived prohibited such use in residential properties. Administrative licences proved insufficient. Drawing on legal precedent, tourist rentals were classified as an economic activity, and the Registry gave precedence to the civil validity of the bylaws over municipal or regional authorisations. The property was therefore removed from platforms such as Airbnb and Booking.com.
As the regulation has been rolled out, its impact on the market has intensified. Tens of thousands of properties have been delisted from online portals for failing to obtain the required registration number. These rejections stemmed from multiple factors: inconsistencies in land registry records, statutory prohibitions, properties designated as subsidised housing, or rental managers who were not formally registered as business owners. This vetting process has turned the registration number into a decisive filter: a property may hold a tourist licence, but if it does not pass the registry check, it is automatically excluded from online listings.
Despite this, the year has also brought some positive outcomes. Owners and rental managers have succeeded in overturning administrative refusals after regularising ownership, proving their status through regional tourism registries or resolving issues linked to social housing, as lawyer Francisco Campoy explained in an opinion piece published on idealista/news. These cases show that a rejection is not always the end of the road, but rather a turning point that requires speed, strategy and specialist advice, as Campoy, a partner at EMEDE ETL GLOBAL, emphasised.
The final assessment is unequivocal: the Short-Term Rental Registry has not been a mere bureaucratic formality, but the ultimate arbiter of the tourism market. It has determined who may continue to operate a property as a short-term rental and who is automatically excluded from the business. It has also made clear that, in this new landscape, only those who comply strictly with every requirement set by the State, the Autonomous Communities and the relevant municipalities will endure.