Thousands of illegal tourist flats in Spain will be converted into permanent housing after failing to comply with regulations.
According to the Spanish government, 53,000 properties that breached the national Single Register of Tourist and Seasonal Accommodations will now become rentals for residents.
“We will demand that platforms remove 53,000 tourist flats for failing to comply with regulations. So that they can become permanent rentals for young people and families in this country", prime minister Pedro Sánchez wrote in an X post on Sunday (14 September).
Running since 1 July 2025, the single rental registry is a nationwide system created to identify and verify all properties intended for temporary rentals in Spain.
If a property is not on the register, it cannot legally be advertised online.
Accommodation platforms, such as Airbnb and Booking.com, have been asked to remove adverts for rule-breaking properties by the Spanish housing ministry.
Airbnb and the Spanish Ministry of Housing identified that less than 10 per cent of the listings that were turned down by the registry were on Airbnb.
An Airbnb spokesperson said: “The vast majority of non-compliant listings are not on Airbnb. So we are calling on other platforms to join Airbnb’s ongoing enforcement effort with local authorities.”
The rental platform added that 70,000 more Airbnb listings have shown a registration number since January.
Airbnb said: “Those listings (that show a registration number) are the ones that our customers love, leaving us with no significant business impact. We are setting the ground for a new and resilient business model in Spain.”
Of the withdrawn tourist flats, 16,740 were discovered in Andalusia, 8,698 in the Canary Islands and 7,499 in the Valencian Community.
As for Spanish cities, Seville saw 2,289 cancelled registrations, Marbella 1,802, Barcelona 1,564 and 1,471 in Malaga.
In June, a Spanish court upheld an order for Airbnb to block nearly 66,000 rental listings across the country, rejecting an appeal from the online platform.
The Consumer Rights Ministry had previously flagged the listings for violations, issuing an order last month for Airbnb to remove 65,935 properties.
Of these, 5,800 were identified for immediate takedown.
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