Royal Decree 1312/2024

Royal Decree 1312/2024 is Spain's national implementing act for EU Regulation 2024/1028, the bloc-wide short-term rental (STR) registration framework. It came into force on 2 July 2025, requiring platforms to share STR registration data with national authorities and imposing a unified registration requirement on hosts. Spain is among the first EU member states to fully transpose the regulation before the EU-wide data-gateway deadline of 20 May 2026.

The decree emerged from a politically charged process: Spain's housing crisis, with particular intensity in Barcelona, Madrid, Málaga and the Canary Islands, has driven demand for stronger STR regulation since 2022. The decree implements host registration, platform data-sharing obligations and the national single-window registration point required by EU Regulation 2024/1028.

The decree's relationship to the €64 million Airbnb fine is procedurally significant. The fine concerns activity predating full implementation of the decree, which gives Airbnb a narrow angle to argue it was penalised before the new rules were fully in force. The Ministry of Consumer Affairs acted under legacy consumer-protection powers rather than the decree itself. If Airbnb's appeal establishes that only decree-compliant enforcement is legally sound, that would paradoxically strengthen the framework going forward while voiding the specific fine.