83% of tourist rentals are no longer allowed to advertise on platforms just days before it becomes mandatory.

Barcelona82.7% of Catalan tourist rentals still lack a registration number to operate legally on digital platforms, just days before it becomes mandatory. European regulations seeking to end the fraudulent use of short-term rentals, which include tourist and seasonal rentals, will come into force in Spain on July 1, and only 9,109 of the 52,870 tourist homes in Catalonia are registered, according to the latest data published by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

The Spanish government had given a six-month trial period for registration, which began on January 2. Therefore, all those who do not register in the coming days and want to advertise on short-term rental platforms, such as Airbnb or Booking, will be considered short-term rentals. Websites or applications where the negotiation and form of the contract are excluded, such as Idealista or Fotocasa, which simply connect tenants and landlords, are excluded from this regulation.

In total, the number of applications received by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda for the single registry of short-term rentals in Catalonia amounts to 28,433, equivalent to 21% of all applications nationwide. Only Andalusia has a higher number of applications. However, of these 28,433 requests, 17,888 were for tourism purposes, and only 9,109 have been granted. The rest were for seasonal rentals, of which only 5,438 have been granted. To put this into context, this Tuesday the Government released data on new rental contracts signed during the first quarter, and up to 3,417 were seasonal, 52.4% more than a year ago.

The sector, against

While in Catalonia the percentage of tourist rentals that already have a registration code is 17.3% of the total, in Spain this figure is lower, since the ministry has accepted 49,101 applications, while there are 368,295 tourist homes across the country, according to data from the INE (National Institute of Statistics and Census). In fact, this Monday the Spanish Federation of Tourist Housing and Apartment Associations (Fevitur) warned that this registration will exclude 70% of the current supply, which they say will cause losses of €13.737 billion.

For the general director of the Barcelona Tourist Apartment Association (Apartur), Marian Muro, this registration "is an invasion of powers" in Catalonia. "We have a registry in Catalonia. It's great to have control over short-term rentals, but it can be perfectly supported by our registry. The European Commission itself has already made it very clear that duplicate registrations should be avoided," he explained in statements to ARA. "There's very little monitoring. It's a complex process," he added.

How does it work?

This registry provides a kind of registration for each temporary rental, which will last 12 months, whether tourist or seasonal. However, in the latter case, to renew it, the owner must provide a list of all the contracts signed during that period. In addition, they must also state, through a sworn statement, the reason justifying the signing of the contracts. If the owner strings together seasonal contracts for the same tenant to avoid the standard contract, which lasts five or seven years and is subject to price controls, the code or registration will be denied, and the property will not be able to be rented under this arrangement.

For tourist rentals, the Property Registry, which handles applications, will be able to certify whether the rental in question complies with regional regulations on tourist accommodation licenses and whether it is in line with the municipal ordinances that city councils are implementing. Similarly, it will also allow homeowner associations that have prohibited the implementation of tourist rentals to certify.