Spain’s Ministry of Housing has ordered 86,275 illegal tourist flats to be removed from booking platforms.
The homes had applied for the-now mandatory short-term rental registration number but were refused because they failed to meet legal requirements in line with new EU rules.
Since last July, the registration code – issued by the Property Registrars and shared with platforms via the ministry’s Digital Single Window – has been compulsory.
Once the ministry issues a notification, platforms must remove the listings, even if the same property is advertised across multiple sites.
Most applications are for tourist lets
Of the 412,253 registration applications submitted so far:
- 320,620 (78%) relate to tourist rentals
- 91,608 (22%) are for non-tourist, seasonal lets
Madrid, Barcelona, Marbella top revoked listings
Madrid leads the ranking of municipalities with the highest number of revoked applications for tourist rentals (5,344), followed by:
- Barcelona (5,005)
- Marbella (2,993)
- Sevilla (2,659)
- Valencia (1,874)
- Malaga (1,845)
- Torrevieja (1,240)
- San Bartolome de Tirajana (1,056)
- Adeje (1,019)
- Arona (942)
Notably, the province of Malaga accounts for seven municipalities among the top 20 with the most rejected applications.
At regional level, Andalucia has by far the highest number of revoked registrations (21,872), followed by Valencian Community (14,387) and Canary Islands (13,726).
One in five applications rejected
According to the latest figures from the College of Property Registrars (January 8):
- 299,754 homes have obtained a permanent registration number
- 16,581 hold a provisional code
- 84,250 applications have been revoked
That means 21% of the 400,362 applications processed so far have been rejected.
The most common reasons for revocation include:
- Lack of the required tourist licence
- No approval from the owners’ association (the legally required three-fifths majority)
- Properties classified as protected housing, which cannot be used for non-residential purposes
- Applications submitted by non-owners
- Incorrect or incomplete land registry details
The ministry says enforcement will continue as platforms are required to delist non-compliant properties.
