A third of tourist apartments in Barcelona are illegal.
They have not yet registered in the new state registry, mandatory since July 1.
BarcelonaFaced with the proliferation of tourist apartments, authorities are trying to monitor a market that has gotten out of control. Since July 1, the state registry for legally operating digital platforms has been in effect, adding another layer of control to others such as the Generalitat registry or the licenses granted by Barcelona City Council. According to the latest available data, corresponding to last Friday, Barcelona's state registry lists 6,759 tourist apartments. They represent nearly 68% of the 10,000 apartments with a license granted by the City Council. Therefore, a third have not yet been registered. This does not include illegal apartments, for which there is no exact figure, but the council detects between 300 and 400 monthly.
In Catalonia as a whole, 32,595 tourist apartments have been registered, which is close to the 56,851 tourist homes that exist, according to estimates by the National Statistics Institute (INE). In fact, 43% of apartments remain to be registered, well above the proportion at the beginning of June. when 83% of Catalan tourist rentals They did not yet have a registration number to operate legally.
For almost two weeks now, all tourist apartments that have not registered in the registry launched by the Spanish government "are outside the system," as the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Housing, Llanos Castellanos, points out. This does not entail a fine, but if detected, the advertisement they have published on the platforms will be removed. The same will also be done if the authorities come across false registration numbers.
The Spanish government is thus responding to a European regulation, approved in mid-2024, to end the fraudulent use of short-term rentals and curb the consequences they have on a housing market in the ICU. The registry was supposed to be operational in May 2026, but the Socialist government has preferred to get ahead of itself in the face of a housing emergency that is becoming increasingly worrying. This includes tourist and seasonal rentals, but only affects those marketed through platforms such as Booking or Airbnb, where you pay per reservation, unlike others such as Idealista, Fotocasa, or Milanuncios, where there is no financial transaction and only contact between landlord and tenant.
A six-month trial period had been given for registration, which began on January 2, but it wasn't until the last minute that many began to apply, especially since mid-June, with applications that continue to grow daily. "For example, on April 1, only 150 applications had been received for the province of Barcelona, while on June 30, more than 2,600 requests arrived," Castellanos points out. So far, there are 10,526 tourist apartments registered in the province.
The College of Registrars is responsible for granting this registration for tourist apartments. Initially, provisionally, and then definitively within 15 days, provided all requirements are met. These requirements are based on compliance with regional regulations on tourist accommodation licenses and the municipal ordinances that city councils are implementing, and on ensuring that no attempt is made to register a subsidized apartment or one where the community of residents has rejected this type of rental.
More than 9,000 illegal listings
Associations such as Apartur criticize the new registry for creating duplications with existing ones, such as that of the Generalitat (Catalan Government). The Department of Business emphasizes that the Catalan Tourism Registry number is still valid and adds that its own number is used to identify all establishments, not just tourist accommodations.
Like Barcelona City Council, the Generalitat (Catalan Government) is also working to eliminate illegal listings. Since the beginning of 2025, the Catalan government has requested the removal of more than 9,000 listings for tourist accommodations on the Airbnb platform. Apartur also criticizes the fact that the process requires two payments and requests that the €30 fee for the new process be covered with public funds.
With the state registration, another monitoring tool is activated, with the first results expected to begin to be released in mid-August. From its launch, platforms must submit information on all registered transactions monthly. The Spanish government will then be responsible for reviewing the data received with the published listings, coordinating with regional and municipal administrations to continue the inspection work, a check that the platforms are also required to carry out randomly and periodically. Furthermore, Booking.com, Airbnb, and Rentalia—a subsidiary of Idealista for tourist rentals—have committed to the Ministry of Housing to remove listings that do not have this registration number.
Meanwhile, applications for tourist apartments that were already operating but did not meet all the requirements for registration are already being revoked. In Barcelona, 630 homes have been denied registration, while in Catalonia, 3,192 have been denied registration. Across Spain, 23,106 applications have not been accepted.
