Spanish tourist licences in 2026: which number counts

In three lines

• The national register number is no longer required. In judgment 620/2026 of 19 May, Spain's Supreme Court annulled the national short-term rental register of Royal Decree 1312/2024: the State has no competence to create a register that overlaps the regional ones (court press note, Spanish).
• The number that counts is the regional tourism register number: HUT in Catalonia, VT in Valencia, VUT in Andalusia, ETV in the Balearics, VV in the Canaries.
• Platforms must still show and verify it: EU Regulation 2024/1028 applies from 20 May 2026 (EUR-Lex).

What was annulled and what remains

Royal Decree 1312/2024 created two things: the national rental register (a number issued by the Land Registries) and the Digital Single Window, which collects the data platforms send. The judgment, on an appeal by the Valencian government, annuls the first: the national register and the duty to hold its number to advertise. According to the court's note, the Single Window and the data-exchange duties can stay.

What the EU regulation requires

Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 makes platforms collect the registration number from the host, display it on the listing, run random checks, and remove listings without a valid number when an authority asks. It applies from 20 May 2026 (European Commission).

Enforcement is real: Spain's consumer ministry fined Airbnb €64 million over 65,122 listings without a valid registration number (ministry press note, Spanish).

How to check a licence per region

Barcelona: the 2028 HUT cliff

Under Catalan Decree-Law 3/2023, about 10,000 HUT licences in the city will not be renewed in November 2028, according to the city council. We keep every quarterly file of the city census since 2018: 454 licences that were listed are gone today. See Barcelona.