NRA Short-Term Rental Registration Spain 2026: What Changes After the Supreme Court Annulled the Single Rental Registry

If you own a property in Spain and rent it out — even occasionally — through platforms like Airbnb, Booking.com, or Vrbo, there is a regulatory change that you cannot afford to ignore. Since 1 July 2025, every short-term rental advertised on an online platform in Spain must display a valid NRA (*Número de Registro de Alquiler*), a unique registration number that functions as the property's official "ID card" for rental purposes.

Failure to obtain and display this number means your listing can — and will — be removed by the platform. More critically, it exposes you to administrative fines and potential tax investigations. At Bufete Padilla, we are already advising dozens of Costa Blanca property owners on compliance. This guide covers everything you need to know.

2026 Update: The Supreme Court Annulled the State's Single Rental Registry (STS 620/2026)

This is the single most important development for holiday-let owners in 2026, and most online guides have not been updated.

By Judgment no. 620/2026 of 19 May 2026 (Third Chamber, Contentious-Administrative, Section 3), published in the BOE as BOE-A-2026-12300, the Spanish Supreme Court partially upheld the appeal filed by the Generalitat Valenciana against Royal Decree 1312/2024 of 23 December, which created the *Registro Único de Arrendamientos* (Single Rental Registry) and the *Ventanilla Única Digital de Arrendamientos* (Digital Single Window for Rentals). A parallel judgment of 21 May 2026 (BOE-A-2026-13893), on the appeal by Apartur and ATA, reached the same conclusion.

What exactly did the Supreme Court annul?

| Element of RD 1312/2024 | Status after STS 620/2026 |
|---|---|
| Single Rental Registry (registration procedure, national registration number) | Annulled — the State lacks competence |
| Digital Single Window for Rentals (*Ventanilla Única Digital*) | Valid — upheld |
| Coordination between the State window and regional windows | Valid — upheld |
| Online platforms' data-transmission obligations | Valid — upheld |
| Data transfer for statistical purposes | Valid — upheld |
| Regional tourist registries (VT / EGVT in the Comunitat Valenciana) | Unaffected — fully enforceable |

The Court's reasoning

The Supreme Court accepted that there is genuine concern, at both EU and national level, about short-term lets advertised on online platforms — pressure on long-term housing stock, rising rents and displacement of residents in city neighbourhoods. It also accepted that Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 of 11 April 2024, on the collection and exchange of data relating to short-term accommodation rental services, requires Member States to align their existing registration and information systems.

But — and this is the core of the ruling — the EU Regulation does not require the registration procedure to be national, and it does not interfere with the internal distribution of powers within each Member State.

The Court then examined, one by one, the constitutional titles invoked by the State and rejected all of them as a basis for an exhaustive national registry:

• Art. 149.1.8 CE (civil legislation and the ordering of public registries and instruments) — inapplicable: the procedure does not register a lease contract, nor charges or limitations on ownership intended to bind third parties. It merely allocates a registration number as a precondition for advertising on a platform.
• Art. 149.1.1 CE (basic conditions guaranteeing equality) — not a sufficient basis.
• Art. 149.1.13 CE (bases and coordination of general economic planning) — exceeded: the regulation goes far beyond "bases" or specific "coordination measures" and creates an exhaustive national registry superimposed on the regional registries that already exist for tourist-let properties.
• Art. 149.1.31 CE (statistics for State purposes) — valid only for the statistical and data-transmission elements, which is precisely why those survived.