While cities in Spain and other countries struggle with the issue of short-term rentals and how it affects their local housing situations, Spain is taking a step at the national level to create a standardized registration system.
The Housing and Urban Agenda Minister, Isabel Rodriguez, announced last week that a portal is being created through which all landlords and providers of rental shorter than a year will be required to register and receive a registration number.
The portal, the Digital Single Window for Leases, will verify that the property meets all the legal requirements to function as a vacation or seasonal rental. If it meets them all, it will be issued an identification number that can be used to register on online platforms such as Airbnb.
At present, there is no uniform verification, and some estimates say there are 25 illegal listings for each legitimate one. The issued numbers will be good for one year before a new or renewal application must be submitted.
Rodriguez told press that “We will be the first EU country to develop these regulations,” and that the ultimate goal is for there to be a single registry at European level. The Spanish platform will be connected with the European one when it is created in mid-2026.
Image: Minister Rodriguez at her press conference
