Number of holiday lets in Granada falls after entry into force of Spanish register

The new register of tourist apartments promoted by the Spanish government in 2025 has led to the removal of 1,664 flats from online rental platforms in Granada province. According to data from the INE (Spain's national statistics institute) in May last year, before this register was launched, there were 8,305 such apartments in Granada, which means that more than 20 per cent have been removed from the online market.

These are properties that have not been registered in the Ministry of Housing's new system, so they cannot be offered on websites like AirBnb or Booking.com. However, this does not mean that they are completely out of the tourist market, because there is another register, which was already in place previously and which is managed by the Junta de Andalucía. In fact, this double filter has caused discrepancies between the two authorities since the second one was set up in July this year. The government has always maintained that it was the application of a European directive.

The data are different depending on which register is consulted. The Junta de Andalucía lists 9,600 tourist properties (not counting rural houses) on its website. However, the Ministry's figures indicate that out of 8,400, more than 1,600 have been revoked, of which half, 832, are in Granada city. The reason is that the fact that they leave the digital platforms because they are not on this second register, which is done through the offices of the property registrars, does not cause them to be removed by the Andalusian government.

New European regulations for the regulation of short-term rentals, which came into effect on 1 July 2025, oblige all tourist rental properties to have a mandatory code called the Rental Registration Number (RIN) in order to be able to legally advertise on platforms and which provoked criticism from associations representing owners of this type of homes.

Avitar Granada's president, Antonio Jesús Castillo, has criticised the restrictions, saying that they are becoming more and more restrictive for the sector. He also points out that although the number of properties registered on the Junta's register is higher, this is partly due to the fact that some have ceased to be used for this purpose, but have not been removed from this list and have not been registered in the Ministry's register.

The Andalusian association of tourist apartment properties (AVVAPro) is also critical. They argue that the decision to entrust the Spanish registrars with the implementation of a duplicate state register has provoked the forced departure of owners and management companies that complied with the regional regulations, "generating an unjustified restrictive impact".

The figures published by the INE show that since the entry into force of the register up to November the number of tourist properties in the province has already fallen by nine per cent. Andalucía is the region with the highest tension of this type of flats in the country and in Granada, in November (the last month for which the INE has figures), 1.3 per cent of the properties registered were for tourist use. However, the percentage was lower than before the entry into force of the register.

The central government wants these homes that cannot be advertised on platforms to be put on the regular rental market in order to increase the supply, which is currently insufficient. In September, when prime minister Pedro Sánchez made a first assessment of the launch of this register, he announced that the intention was that unregistered homes would become permanent rentals "for young people and families".