New Short-Term Rental Regulations in Spain | NRUA Registration Obligation
The new Legal Obligation for Short-Term Rentals Booked Through Online Platforms in SpainStay compliant with Spain's new short-term rental laws. Learn about the NRUA registration and the reporting requirements for online bookings.
New Legal Obligation for Short-Term Rentals Booked Through Online Platforms in Spain
Why is this important?
This new obligation ensures that your short-term rental business is compliant with local regulations, helping you avoid penalties and ensuring transparency in the sector.
Action Steps for Property Owners:Ensure your rental property is registered with the NRUA if you haven’t already.Get ready to submit the form every February, reporting all rentals made in the past 12 months.Review your online booking platforms to ensure they comply with the new regulation.
As of December 31, 2025, Order VAU/1560/2025 establishes a mandatory reporting model for short-term rentals in Spain, affecting properties booked through online rental platforms.Key Information for Property Owners:Annual Declaration Requirement: Property owners must submit a report every year via an official form for short-term rentals with an NRUA (Unique Rental Registration Number).Who Does It Affect?: This regulation applies to seasonal rentals, rooms, and tourist accommodations booked through online platforms, not for in-person contracts.What to Report: The form requires information such as rental purpose, number of guests, check-in/check-out dates, and property details for each unit.Deadline for Reporting: You must submit your report annually in February, covering the previous 12 months of bookings.Exemption: This rule applies only to bookings through online platforms. In-person contracts do not need to comply with the NRUA registration.Why Is This Important for Property Owners?Adhering to the new short-term rental regulations in Spain ensures that your property is compliant with the law, avoiding penalties and ensuring transparency in the market. This will also allow you to operate your rental business smoothly and legally.Action Steps for Property Owners:Register your property for an NRUA (if you haven’t done so already).Prepare to submit the annual report each February, detailing all short-term rentals over the past 12 months.Check your online rental platforms to ensure they comply with Spain’s new short-term rental regulations.
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The new rental tax incentive clashes with the rent reductions under the Housing Law
The 100% reduction in personal income tax (IRPF) for freezing rents neutralizes the highest reduction provided by the national regulation, which is 90% if the lease price is lowered.
Desperate times call for drastic—and familiar—measures. The majority partner in the government, in yet another attempt to curb the sharp rise in rental prices without intervening directly in the market, has put forward a new fiscal measure in the form of an income tax incentive. The core idea—still at a very early stage and yet to be fully defined—is to create a 100% reduction in personal income tax (IRPF) for property owners who keep rents unchanged when it comes time to renew contracts.However, the measure announced by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is born with an evident paradox. As currently proposed, it threatens to sideline—or even directly neutralize—the system of tax incentives that was launched following the approval of the Housing Law.That regulation, approved by Congress in 2023, introduced a range of IRPF reductions starting the following year for landlords renting out primary residences. The scheme is progressive, beginning with a general 50% reduction and offering greater benefits for certain decisions, such as lowering rents or renting to young tenants. The most ambitious and attractive measure is a 90% reduction in positive net income for landlords who sign a new contract in a stressed residential market area and, in addition, lower the rent by more than 5% compared with the previous contract.Pending further details on the plan unveiled by Sánchez last week, the contradiction is clear and raises an obvious question: who would reduce rent by 5% to qualify for a 90% tax break when, apparently, it would be enough not to increase it in order to enjoy a 100% reduction?“Without knowing the technical details, the proposal to raise the reduction to 100% for landlords who freeze prices points in the opposite direction to the incentive structure introduced by the Housing Law,” says Raquel Jurado, a specialist at the research department of the Registry of Tax Economist Advisors (REAF). A total reduction in taxable income in exchange for maintaining rent levels “not only undoes the tax increase caused by lowering the general reduction to 50%, but also turns the most attractive incentive into one linked to keeping prices unchanged,” she adds.Francisco Serantes, coordinator of the personal income tax expert group at the Spanish Association of Tax Advisors (Aedaf), agrees: “Unless there is some nuance or requirement that has not yet been disclosed, the announcement effectively empties the existing tax incentives of their content.”The union of technicians at the Ministry of Finance (Gestha) also highlights the doubts surrounding the new proposal, while calling for a restructuring of the current tax incentives. Without such a redefinition, union sources believe “it could be perceived that property owners who maintain prices receive greater tax advantages than those who actually lower them.”Sources from the Ministry of Finance—the department responsible for finding the technical framework and implementing the proposal—explain that work is still at a very early stage and that all details have yet to be finalized.The main objective of the new plan announced by La Moncloa is to contain the sharp rise in prices that is causing growing concern among tenants. In the coming months, contracts signed during the de-escalation of the COVID-19 health crisis will expire, after the five-year term established by the Urban Leasing Law for private landlords (for companies, the minimum duration is seven years). The situation, however, is very different from that time, as rents have increased by around 35% during this period.
The Supreme Court upholds the government’s cap on rent increases until 2024
The Supreme Court has upheld the 2% limit that the government set in March 2022 on annual rent updates, with the aim of mitigating the effects of inflation. The Administrative Litigation Chamber ruled that the measure, approved through a royal decree-law on urgent measures to address the economic and social consequences of the invasion of Ukraine, did not constitute a deprivation of property rights nor violate their essential content.In March 2022, the government decided to extend the social protection measures introduced during the coronavirus pandemic and temporarily froze the clause in residential lease contracts that allows landlords to update rents annually in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI). As a result, landlords were prevented from increasing rents beyond the 2% cap (which did not apply when a contract expired and a new one was signed, in which case the rent could be freely increased).The measure was extended throughout 2023 with the same index, while in 2024 the cap was raised to 3%. For 2025 and 2026, annual rent reviews are carried out in accordance with the new Housing Lease Reference Index (published by the National Statistics Institute, INE) for new contracts, while older contracts continue to be updated under the traditional CPI limit.The cap on rental prices sparked debate, particularly among landlords, who argued that it infringed upon the right to private property. In this regard, Societat de Arrendaments 2007 S.L.U. sought compensation of €631,000 in damages, claiming state liability—a request that was denied by the Council of Ministers.In a ruling issued on the 14th and made public yesterday, the Supreme Court dismissed the company’s appeal and rejected the argument that the limit had an expropriatory nature.According to Societat de Arrendaments 2007, the cap led to a drastic reduction in updated rental income, as it was based on an index far lower than the one that would have resulted from freely applying the CPI as agreed between landlords and tenants.
Valencia extends the maximum age to access affordable rental housing up to 45 years
The City Council has announced a package of measures to address the housing shortage affecting residents
The Valencia City Council has announced that it will extend the maximum age for priority access to affordable rental housing to 45 years. This was explained by the mayor, María José Catalá, who updated the regulations and guidelines of the “Plan + Vivienda” and introduced a new set of strategic measures.According to Catalá, this new model is based on three pillars:“More affordable housing for Valencia residents, greater supply at lower prices, and regulatory reforms to adapt the General Urban Plan (PGOU) to a 21st-century city.”The first announced measure is to increase the maximum age to access affordable rental housing by 10 years, up to 45 years. This change is aimed at “addressing the new social reality,” according to the mayor, who lamented that “the difficulty in accessing housing is causing the age of emancipation to become increasingly later.”“By recognizing residents up to 45 years old as preferential beneficiaries, a much wider segment of the middle and working class can access public housing, protecting the development of their life projects in the city,” Catalá added.
Minimum 7 years registered in ValenciaAnother measure announced by the mayor is the implementation of a residency requirement in the allocation criteria, giving priority to citizens who have been registered (empadronados) in the city for at least seven years.“We want to give opportunities to those who have built their life project in our city. Residents who can demonstrate a stable and long-term connection to the municipality by being registered for at least seven years will be able to register in the affordable housing demand registry,” the mayor said, emphasizing that this threshold ensures that the public housing stock is primarily allocated to those committed to Valencia long-term, strengthening social cohesion and neighborhood identity.To reduce prices, supply must increaseIn parallel, the councilor focused on increasing supply, noting that this is the only way to lower housing prices. For this reason, María José Catalá highlighted a previously announced measure: the creation of the Municipal Rental Agency, aimed at mobilizing vacant properties in the city that are not coming to market, often due to fear of squatting.The new entity will allow access to rental apartments at prices up to 20% below market rates.“This City Council wants to provide security to property owners and ensure that residents can have a home,” the mayor emphasized, explaining that property owners will be guaranteed rent payments at the end of each month through the council’s insurance.Change of use: from public facilities to residentialThe city council also announced that several plots currently designated for educational use, totaling over 500,000 m², will be allocated to the construction of protected housing through public investment and public-private collaboration. The goal of this change is for the housing to be primarily targeted at young people.Additionally, the mayor stated that agreements will be signed with the private sector to reserve a portion of residential units under protection schemes.“In this way, the administration acts as a bridge for the private sector to help reduce the waiting list of applicants,” the mayor highlighted, calling on the private sector to assist in addressing the city’s housing demand.Increasing the density of developmentsTo expand the city’s residential stock, the council has decided to increase the density of future residential developments, from the current 75 homes per hectare established in the General Plan to 140 homes per hectare.Furthermore, the council will facilitate the segmentation and division of large historic homes, particularly those built in the 20th century with double access.“This aims to increase residential supply by using existing buildings without consuming new land,” Catalá explained.In this context, the mayor also reminded that the reconversion of tourist ground-floor units into residential housing will be promoted, provided they meet habitability conditions, which could add about 2,000 new residential units according to municipal data.
María José Catalá concluded her statement by emphasizing:“The best way to improve access to housing is to build more homes.”She also stated that she will request the central government to release public buildings on state-owned plots that are currently inactive, which, according to city data, could accommodate 800 new homes.
Home sales fell 2.4% in November, to 61,217 units
Transactions grew in eight autonomous communities and declined in the remaining nine.
Home sales fell by 2.4% in November, reaching 61,217 units.Home sales fell by 2.4% in November, reaching 61,217 units compared with the same month of the previous year, according to data from the General Council of Notaries. During the same period, the number of mortgage loans granted for home purchases increased by 6.5% year-on-year to 32,138 operations. Transactions rose in eight autonomous communities and declined in the remaining nine. The average price per square meter stood at €1,937, representing a 6.3% annual increase, with the strongest growth recorded in Castilla-La Mancha (+22.3%), Asturias (+19.5%), and the Region of Murcia (+19%). By housing type, apartment sales declined by 4.4% year-on-year to 45,944 units, while single-family home transactions increased by 4.2% to 15,273 units. Apartment prices rose by 7.2% to €2,226 per square meter, while single-family home prices averaged €1,442 per square meter, up 5.3%.
Regionally, home sales increased in Navarra (+10.4%), Extremadura (+5.2%), La Rioja (+4.2%), Castilla-La Mancha (+2.9%), Andalusia (+2.7%), Castilla y León (+2.1%), Catalonia (+0.9%), and the Basque Country (+0.2%), while declines were recorded in the Community of Madrid (-14.3%), the Balearic Islands (-13.9%), Cantabria (-10.3%), the Canary Islands (-7.9%), Asturias (-6.7%), Galicia (-6.4%), the Valencian Community (-4.1%), the Region of Murcia (-0.1%), and Aragon (-1.2%). Housing prices increased in 16 autonomous communities, with the largest rises in Castilla-La Mancha (+22.3%), Asturias (+19.5%), the Region of Murcia (+19%), the Valencian Community (+12.7%), and Cantabria (+11%), while prices fell only in Castilla y León (-1%). Mortgage lending grew in 14 autonomous communities, exceeding the national average in Navarra (+17.4%), La Rioja (+17.3%), Castilla-La Mancha (+15.5%), Catalonia (+12.6%), the Valencian Community (+10%), Extremadura (+10%), and the Basque Country (+7.2%), while average mortgage loan amounts rose overall but showed uneven performance across regions.