Supreme Court Annuls the National Short-Term Rental Register

The Spanish Supreme Court, in Judgment No. 620/2026 of 19 May 2026, has partially upheld a challenge to Royal Decree 1312/2024 of 23 December. That decree had created a Single Register of Short-Term Lettings and a Digital One-Stop Shop for sharing data on short-term accommodation services. The Court has found that the State administration exceeded its constitutional competences by attempting to impose a centralised registration system that overlaps with existing regional registers governing tourist accommodation.

In its reasoning, the Supreme Court emphasised that while European Union law seeks to ensure harmonised data collection and transparency in the short-term rental market, it does not require the creation of a single, nationwide register that displaces or duplicates regional systems.

“The prior existence of regional registers does not prevent the State from adopting coordination mechanisms, but it does not justify the establishment of a single national registration procedure applicable to all units.”

The Court further noted that EU Regulation 2024/1028 allows Member States to operate one or more registration systems, provided that a single property is not subject to multiple overlapping registration procedures, but it does not mandate a centralised State-level register.

Practical consequences

As a result of this ruling, the obligation to obtain a registration number under the annulled State system will no longer apply to properties already registered under the relevant regional tourism regimes.

In practice:

• Properties that already hold a valid regional tourism registration, such as a Vivienda de Uso Turístico (VUT) in Andalusia, will not be required to register under the now-invalidated State system.
• There is no longer any requirement to obtain an additional national registration number for the purpose of listing short-term rentals.
• Owners may continue to advertise their properties on platforms such as Airbnb or Booking.com using only their existing regional licence.

This effectively removes the duplication of administrative obligations introduced by the annulled regulation and restores the primacy of the regional registration frameworks in the short-term rental sector.

Conclusion:The Supreme Court’s decision does not mean that short-term rentals are no longer regulated. What it does is clarify that this area should mainly be controlled by the regional authorities, not by the central government. Coordination between authorities is still allowed, but a single national register that duplicates the existing regional ones is not. In practice, this means that holiday rentals in Spain will continue to be governed mainly by the regional registration systems, which remain fully valid for both legal compliance and advertising purposes..