{"id":13321,"date":"2026-06-11T09:15:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T07:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogturismo.garrigues.com\/?p=13321"},"modified":"2026-06-09T15:47:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T13:47:16","slug":"the-supreme-court-annuls-the-single-registry-for-vacation-rentals-and-returns-control-of-short-term-rentals-to-the-regional-authorities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogturismo.garrigues.com\/en\/legislation\/the-supreme-court-annuls-the-single-registry-for-vacation-rentals-and-returns-control-of-short-term-rentals-to-the-regional-authorities","title":{"rendered":"The Supreme Court annuls the Single Registry for Vacation Rentals and returns control of short-term rentals to the regional authorities"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Supreme Court has partially overturned Royal Decree 1312\/2024 which created the controversial Single Registry for Short-term Rentals. In its judgment of 19 May 2026, the Court held that the State lacked the competence to impose a national registry that overlapped with those already in place in the autonomous communities, as the Council of State had already warned. We analyse the European origin of the regulation, the issues it raised, what remains in force and what property owners should do next.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Regulation (EU) 2024\/1028, of 11 April 2024, establishes harmonised rules so that the authorities have reliable information available on short-term rentals offered through digital platforms. A key point: the European regulation does not require<\/strong> the creation of a single national registry. It allows several registration procedures -national, regional or local- to coexist, provided that a unit is not subject to more than one (art. 4.3.d). However, it does require a single digital entry point for the transmission of data.<\/p>\n

Against this backdrop, Royal Decree 1312\/2024, of 23 December 2024, was presented as the legislation that adapted said regulation to the Spanish legal framework. It created two instruments: (i) a single registration procedure managed by the Property Registry and (ii) the Single Digital Entry Point for Rentals, attached to the Ministry of Housing.<\/p>\n

In practice, any property owner who wanted to offer a short-term rental -whether for tourism, seasonal stays, work, study, or any other type- had to obtain a registration number (NRUA). Without this number, platforms such as Airbnb or Vrbo could not publish the advert, and if the NRUA was suspended or withdrawn, the platform had to remove it within 48 hours. These operational requirements came into effect from 1 July 2025.<\/p>\n

In addition, the royal decree provided that, until the approval of a specific penalty regime, the penalty regimes of central, regional and local legislation would apply. At the same time, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs opened investigations against platforms due to unfair commercial practices linked to unlicensed properties, with fines of up to \u20ac100,000 which could be multiplied up to six times the unlawful profits obtained. In practice, the most immediate consequence for property owners without the NRUA was direct: the withdrawal of their adverts and the loss of reservations and revenues.<\/p>\n

It is worth noting that, with respect to the draft royal decree, the Council of State unanimously issued opinion 1926\/2024, dated 18 December 2024, setting out three essential observations which advised rewriting the regulation: (i) that the central government lacked the competence to create the registry (since it was materially an administrative registry, “however much it has been disguised as a procedure within the Property Registry”); (ii) that a mere regulation could not impose enabling requirements subject to a statutory reservation; and (iii) that Article 9.5 of the Royal Decree directly contradicted the European regulation since it allowed two registration numbers for the same property. As an alternative, the Council proposed a central administrative registry to coordinate information from the autonomous community registries without replacing them. The Government, however, approved the regulation regardless.<\/p>\n

And everything the Council of State had warned of occurred. Since its entry into force, the Single Registry accumulated refusals, suspensions, withdrawn adverts and conflicts with the autonomous community registries. The main problems were registry <\/strong>duplication<\/strong>, since the autonomous communities already had their own tourism registries; the encroachment on regional competences<\/strong>, reported by 14 autonomous communities; and the improvisation<\/strong>, with only nine days of vacatio legis<\/em> in the middle of the Christmas period and an entry into force in the middle of the peak season. The Canary Islands Association of Vacation Rentals (Ascav) reported the situation to the European Commission, which warned Spain of the infringement and urged it to eliminate the dual registration.<\/p>\n

What has the Supreme Court decided?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Judgment 620\/2026 (STS 2148\/2026), of 19 May 2026, partially upheld the appeal by the Valencia Autonomous Community Government. The Court concluded that none of the competence titles invoked by the Government supported the single registration procedure: neither the regulation of public registries under article 149.1.8.\u00aa of the Spanish Constitution – since it concerns a registry linked to housing and tourism competences, not a civil registry -nor the basic provisions for economic planning under article 149.1.13.\u00aa of the Spanish Constitution- since the regulation \u201cexceeds what can be considered basic provisions\u201d since it is detailed and overlaps with the autonomous community registries – nor the conditions of equality under article 149.1.1.\u00aa of the Spanish Constitution.<\/p>\n

The judgment overturned<\/strong> articles 1 (in relation to the registry), 2.f), 2.i), 2.j), 5, 6 (in relation to the registry), 8, 9, 10, 12.b) and 12.c), additional provision two and the first final provision, as well as any other reference to the single registry.<\/p>\n

The following articles, among others, remain in force: the Single Digital Entry Point for Rentals (article 7), the data transmission obligations for online platforms and the transmission of data for statistical purposes to the National Institute of Statistics (INE) and to Eurostat.<\/p>\n

How should property owners address the new situation?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The procedure to obtain a registration number through the Property Registry has been declared null and void. This means that the obligation to register on the state registry and obtain the national registration number to publish adverts on platforms is no longer enforceable. Some property owners excluded from the market by the rules now declared null may wish to explore whether a claim on the grounds of loss of profits under the State liability regime [responsabilidad patrimonial del Estado] could be viable in their particular circumstances.<\/p>\n

However, the autonomous communities maintain their own tourism registries, licences and solemn declarations [declaraciones responsables] fully in force. Property owners must continue to comply with regional and local legislation in their territory (tourism licence, autonomous community registry, solemn declaration, etc.). The Government will likely approve a new regulation that respects the division of competences, coordinating autonomous community registries without duplicating them, as suggested by the Council of State.<\/p>\n

In short, the Supreme Court\u2019s judgment does not create a legal void: it returns regulatory prominence to the autonomous communities, exactly as the Council of State had already recommended in its opinion.<\/p>\n

Property owners must ensure that they comply with the regulations of the autonomous community in which their accommodation is located and remain alert to the new state regulation that is expected to replace the one that has been overturned by the court.<\/p>\n

Bego\u00f1a Iglesias\u00a0<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Tourism and Hotels Service<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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