On April 3, 2025 reforms to the Horizontal Property Law came into effect in Spain. And it came with both chaos and a clear sign that the push for regulations isn’t over by a long shot.
As of April 3, landlords must register their properties with the Registro Único, via an online portal where they provide a wide range of information to receive a license number. To list your property on a site, such as Airbnb, you will be required to have this number.
Failure to have this license could lead to large fines. The law itself originates at the EU level and is an attempt to bring order – and taxation – to the often-grey market practices of the tourist rental sector.
With the law’s effective date approaching, it was always likely that there would be a stampede to register properties before it came into effect. The last-minute rush to register prior to April 3 caused the system to crash and thus the deadline to pass.
There was panic as people thought that they had missed the opportunity to register and were now in an illegal situation. They would then be forced to get the explicit, written permission of their local housing association and start over with the registration process.
However, that was only true for those tourist rentals that were not legally licensed already.
Ultimately, confusion reigns around several aspects of the law. This could have easily been cleared up in advance. For instance, licensed landlords have until July 1 to register their property, not the date of April 3 when the law came into effect.
Likely, we will see the same last-minute stampede to register and systems crashing at the end of June. It’s just human nature to procrastinate.
In addition to confusion regarding dates, there also remains confusion as to the authority of local homeowners’ associations in permitting tourist rental licenses.
It is true that the April 3 deadline means that all new licenses are subject to the new procedure, involving the homeowners’ association in a building or community. If a tourist rental had a license prior to that, they continue to operate under the old rules.
If you are seeking a new license, either because you have a property that you want to license for the first time – or you have purchased a tourist rental from a previous owner – you are subject to the new rules.
You must get permission in writing from the homeowners’ association, based on a 3/5ths vote at a duly constituted meeting with quorum. If you want to rent out your property on a vacation rental platform, you must get that permission in writing.
The homeowners’ association is also legally permitted to raise community fees on tourist rentals. This is based on the principle that they are businesses and not residences and therefore use more services to earn income.
Unfortunately, while the principle behind it might be sound, there are problems. For instance, the association doesn’t have to provide proof that the tourist rental is using more services – such as garbage or maintenance – to warrant a given increase.
That could obviously lead to abuses of various kinds. It could even be used to pressure tourist rental owners who had licenses prior to April 3, to give them up.
While this new law is the biggest news now, there have been a flurry of new regulations in the last year. Barcelona, at one end of the spectrum, has entirely banned tourist rentals as of 2028. Other cities haven’t gone that far and are instead implementing quotas, area bans on new licenses, and new regulations.
This chaos is adding to the sense of uncertainty and anxiety.
However, this likely would have passed as the new regulatory regimes settled into place over the next 6-12 months. Except that it’s not over.
The motivation for the changes has been the unprecedented mobilizations across Spain for housing over more than a year. From the Canary and Balearic Islands to the Iberian Peninsula, there have been demonstrations and campaigns of significant size.
On April 5, just two days after the law came into effect, there were hundreds of thousands of people protesting in cities and towns across Spain. Organizers in Madrid and Barcelona claimed that 150,000 and 100,000 attended their protests respectively.
Of course, the government in both places claimed much smaller attendance and the truth is probably somewhere in between. What is certain is that the pressure hasn’t gone away for more profound and far-reaching action on the issue of housing.
The cause is primarily that there are simply not enough houses being built to meet the growth in the number of households. That is leading to price rises for both tenants and those who want to purchase a home. It is also encouraging speculation, which exacerbates the situation.
Up till now, the government’s response has been largely focused on rent controls and some minor increases in public housing in Spain – which, at 2%, is one of the lowest in the OECD. And, of course, imposing more stringent regulations on holiday rentals – which are an easy target in many ways. Certainly, easier than getting an extra 200,000 homes built each year.
Part of the problem is also related to the complex political structure of Spain. Every level tries to shift responsibility – and blame – to the next level. Part of the problem is also that solving the problem is going to be painful to some and likely won’t leave anyone truly happy.
It should be said that the acuteness of the problem is receding, little by little. The deficit in housing construction to new household formation has declined by 2/3. But for those who are still living at home, though they are nearing 30 years old (the average age when Spaniards leave the family home) it’s not soon enough. They want to start their adult lives.
Likewise, those who are paying more than 30% of their income for housing – some 1.4 million Spaniards. If you tell them that house construction might reach the level of new household formation sometime in the next three years, that doesn’t help them today.
Eliminating the longstanding deficit in new houses also won’t eliminate the accumulated problem of shortages from past years. Spain needs to be building more houses than it is creating new households to clear this backlog.
In the meantime, governments will continue to try and shift the blame onto easier targets, like Airbnbs. That strategy risks damaging a key sector of the Spanish economy – tourism accounts for over 12% of GDP – while not actually solving the housing problem.
The Spanish economy has had 2 strong years and should have another one this year. We must hope that winning streak isn’t derailed by short-sighted political calculations.
View full article in Terra Meridiana