How to register a tourist rental home (VUT) in Spain

A vivienda de uso turístico is a furnished and equipped property that is let out on a regular basis, for a price and for tourist purposes, marketed through tourist supply channels (platforms such as Airbnb or Booking, agencies, advertising). The rules are not a single national set: each comunidad autónoma (Spanish region) sets them, and in many cases the town hall does too.

It is different from letting a home as someone's main residence (governed by the Ley de Arrendamientos Urbanos, the Spanish Urban Leases Act) and from seasonal letting. As a practical test: if you are going to advertise the property for short stays on tourist platforms, in practice you have to register it as a vivienda de uso turístico.

The duty to register falls on the holder of the activity, that is, the owner or whoever operates it. Registration comes before marketing: you first legalise the property and obtain its registration number, and only then advertise it. Managora takes care of the whole registration for you.

The central step to legalise the property is to enter it in the tourism registry of your comunidad autónoma. In most regions this is done through an online declaración responsable (a self declaration that the activity is starting): once it is filed the property may begin operating, without waiting for prior authorisation, and it receives a registration number (the initials differ from one territory to another).

That number identifies the property and must appear on all of your listings and in your advertising. It is precisely the number that platforms ask for and display on the property's listing.

The usual technical requirements, which vary by region, tend to include: a document proving the property is fit for habitation (cédula de habitabilidad or licencia de ocupación, the Spanish habitability certificate or occupancy licence), the energy performance certificate, public liability insurance, minimum floor area and equipment, an identifying plaque, complaint forms and, in many municipalities, a certificate of town-planning compatibility.

Managora gathers the technical documentation, prepares the declaración responsable and files it with the tourism registry that covers your property. You can check the current price of the service on the service page for this procedure.

At the end of 2024 the Spanish State created, through Real Decreto 1312/2024, a Registro Único de Arrendamientos (single rental registry) and a Ventanilla Única Digital (digital one-stop window), with a Número de Registro Único (single registration number) that platforms had to show on every listing (applicable from 1 July 2025), implementing Reglamento (UE) 2024/1028 on short-term rental data.

Supreme Court judgment number 620/2026, of 19 May 2026, annulled the procedure for the national single registry and its number, on the ground that the State has no power to create a national registry that overlaps the regional tourism registries. The judgment does keep, on the other hand, the ventanilla única digital and the platforms' obligations to report data.

The practical conclusion as at 16 July 2026: the number that works to legalise and advertise your property is the one assigned by your comunidad autónoma. Registration in the regional tourism registry remains compulsory and is what produces the number the platforms require.

This is a changing area, so it is worth confirming the state of the rules before you publish the listing. Managora checks exactly what is required in your case and keeps you up to date.

Since 3 April 2025, the reform of article 17.12 of the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal (the Spanish Horizontal Property Act), introduced by Ley Orgánica 1/2025, requires the prior favourable agreement of the comunidad de propietarios (owners association) in order to start tourist letting activity in a flat located inside a building. That agreement requires the vote of three fifths (3/5) of all owners, who must in turn represent 3/5 of the participation quotas.

With that same majority, the association may limit, make conditional or even ban tourist activity in the building, and may also approve special communal charges for tourist homes, with an increase of up to 20% to offset their impact.

The reform is not retroactive: if the property was already operating legally as a tourist rental before 3 April 2025, it may carry on under the previous regime. Managora helps you document the association's agreement or evidence your prior situation.

There is no single regime across Spain. Each region has its own registry and its own requirements: Andalucía registers properties in the Registro de Turismo de Andalucía, Cataluña in the Registre de Turisme de Catalunya, the Comunidad de Madrid in its registry of tourism businesses and the Comunidad Valenciana through its declaración responsable, among others. The technical documentation and the initials of the registration number change from one to another.

Many town halls add requirements of their own, such as a certificate or report of town-planning compatibility, and apply zoning, caps or moratoriums in saturated areas that can prevent new registrations. Some cities have heavily restricted the granting of new licences.

That is why it is worth checking whether it is viable in your particular municipality before buying the property or spending money on refurbishment. Managora checks the regional and municipal rules that apply to your address and confirms whether registration is possible.

For IRPF (Spanish personal income tax), tourist letting income is, as a general rule, income from immovable capital. One important point: the 60% reduction provided for letting a home as a main residence does not apply. In addition, for the periods when the property is not let, Hacienda (the Spanish tax authority, AEAT) imputes income for a property at the owner's disposal.

The letting becomes an economic activity if you provide services typical of the hotel industry (reception and continuous customer service, periodic cleaning and change of linen during the stay) or if you have at least one employee on a full-time employment contract.

For IVA (Spanish VAT): without hotel services, the letting is exempt from IVA; with hotel services, it is taxed at the reduced rate of 10%. Cleaning and changing linen carried out only on each guest's arrival and departure are not considered hotel services.

As for IAE (the Spanish tax on economic activities), the activity falls under the heading for non-hotel tourist accommodation (group 685), but resident individuals are always exempt from IAE: the 1,000,000 euro turnover threshold only affects companies and other entities. Some regions also apply a tourist tax or levy per stay. Bear in mind that platforms report data to the Agencia Tributaria (the Spanish tax agency), so your income is visible to Hacienda.