The Supreme Court annuls the Single Rental Registry procedure established by Royal Decree 1312/2024
The law firm Toda & Nel-lo has obtained the annulment of the Single Rental Registry (SRR) procedure regulated by Royal Decree 1312/2024, of 23 December. The Judgment No. 629/2026 of the Supreme Court (Administrative Division), of 21 May, has fully upheld the administrative appeal lodged by APARTUR y ATA against the Single Rental Registry procedure established by Royal Decree 1312/2024, which regulated the Single Rental Registry procedure and created the Single Digital Rental Window for the collection and exchange of data relating to short-term accommodation rental services.
Royal Decree required hosts of short-term accommodation rental services to obtain a Single Registry Number as an enabling requirement to carry out this activity, whether on a professional or non-professional basis and on a regular or irregular basis. Hosts could not offer short-term rental services on online platforms without first obtaining this number. The authority to grant it was attributed to the Land Registry and, in the case of vessels and watercraft, to the Movable Property Registry.
On what grounds does the Supreme Court uphold the appeal?
Royal Decree 1312/2024 was issued under the jurisdictional basis of Article 149.1.8 of the Spanish Constitution (the State’s exclusive jurisdiction over civil legislation and the regulation of registries and public instruments). The Supreme Court has ruled that this jurisdictional basis is not appropriate to regulate the SRR procedure and that, consequently, the following have been infringed: the regional governments’ competences in housing matters (art. 148.1.3 SC) and competences in tourism matters (art. 148.1.18 SC). Additionally, the Supreme Court has ruled that the other jurisdictional bases invoked by Royal Decree 1312/2024 do not support the regulation established for the SRR procedure either.
What is the scope of the annulment? Practical implications
/ The annulment applies exclusively to the Single Rental Registry procedure. The ruling does not extend to the other provisions of Royal Decree 1312/2024 relating to the single digital rental window, the data transmission obligations of online platforms, or the transmission of data for statistical purposes.
/ Short-term accommodation hosts are now free from the obligation to obtain a Single Registry Number as a prior requirement for offering their services on online platforms, as the procedure that regulated it has been annulled.
/ The judgment reaffirms that the regulation of short-term rentals falls within the competence of the regional governments in the exercise of their competences in housing and tourism, limiting the State’s capacity to establish general registration requirements.
/ The ruling has a direct impact on the tourist rental sector across Spain and consolidates Toda & Nel-lo as a leading firm in the defence of the sector’s interests before the courts, at a time of intense regulatory activity in the field of short-term rentals.
