The ambitious implementation of the Single Rental Register Number (NRUA) in Spain, designed to exert greater control over the rental market, has been Flexible Accommodation and seasonal, is encountering its first major stumbling block: the processing capacity of municipal registries. Far from being an agile process, the "avalanche" of applications is collapsing many offices in the country's main tourist municipalities.
Recent data speak for themselves. To date, the registrars have processed 340,000 applications of the NRUA. However, the final validation is a slow process: it only takes a few months. 145,152 applications (one 42%) have been definitively accepted, whereas 18,727 (a 5.5%) have been denied. Alarmingly, more than 176,000 applications (over 50%) are still awaiting verification. This bureaucratic bottleneck has a direct and immediate consequence: it prevents thousands of flats from being Flexible Accommodation can advertise on such crucial platforms as Airbnb and Booking.com, which have already started to remove listings without the number (provisional or final).
The complexity is compounded by the "disparity of criteria" between the different Autonomous Communities for the granting of the NRUA. What is a requirement in one region may be different in another: from a specific regional licence or a certificate of habitability, to a municipal licence or proof of compliance with specific tourism requirements. This bureaucratic heterogeneity, coupled with the high volume of applications, is causing significant delays that exasperate owners.
While the government argues that this measure aims to tackle the "housing problem" and increase the supply of long-term rentals, the sector remains sceptical. They argue that the majority of these properties in the Flexible Accommodation will not be converted into long-term residential rentals, as their locations or characteristics do not match the traditional demand for housing. The "war" against tourist flats, far from abating, looks set to "intensify" this summer, driven precisely by the difficulties in obtaining this registration.
This scenario generates a tension between the government's regulatory will and the operational reality of the market. The intention of greater control and transparency faces the complexity of its implementation and the consequences that the difficulty of access to NRUA will have on the legal offer of Flexible Accommodation and the business of thousands of owners who, despite operating within the law, are caught in an administrative limbo. The economic impact and the reconfiguration of the tourism and residential market in the coming seasons will depend, to a large extent, on the agility with which this registry challenge is resolved.
