Spain Supreme Court cancels national short-term rental registry

Spain's Supreme Court has struck down a national registry for short-term tourist rentals, reshaping how the booming holiday apartment sector will be regulated. The ruling, issued on May 21, annulled key provisions of the registry established by the central government last July, concluding that the state lacked the legal authority to create a nationwide system that overlaps with existing regional registries.

The decision followed a legal challenge from the regional government of Valencia, among others, which argued the central government had overstepped its powers. The court agreed, stating that tourism management and rental registries fall under regional competence. It found that a unified national database would conflict with those regional systems as well as European rules discouraging duplicate registration for the same property.

While the court canceled the national registry, which required property owners to register and obtain a number before listing on platforms like Airbnb, it upheld other regulatory tools. These include obligations for online platforms to share rental data with authorities for monitoring and statistical purposes, as well as a digital single window...