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Spain targets 120,000 Airbnb listings deemed illegal
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on July 30, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 22, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on July 30, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 22, 2026
Spain targets 120,000 illegal Airbnb listings, enforcing new regulations to control tourism and protect housing rights.
MADRID (Reuters) -Spain's consumer rights ministry said on Wednesday that Airbnb had withdrawn the 65,000 listings for holiday rentals the ministry said in May violated rules, while it identified nearly 55,000 additional listings also deemed to be illegal.
The Spanish government, as well as city councils and regional authorities, have launched a general crackdown on tourism rentals via sites such as Airbnb and Booking.com. Many Spaniards say such listings are creating excess tourism and driving up housing costs.
The ministry said in a statement its pursuit of the crackdown reaffirmed "its commitment to enforcing the law and guaranteeing the constitutional right to housing over the profits of large multinational corporations".
Airbnb did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.
The removal of the advertisements follows Airbnb's repeatedly attempts to reverse the decision in the courts, where it argued the ministry lacked the authority to make rulings on short-term rentals and had failed to provide an evidence-based list of non-compliant accommodation.
Most of the removed Airbnb listings failed to include their tourist accommodation license number, the ministry said in May, while others did not specify whether the owner was an individual or a corporation, as required by Spanish regulations.
The ministry said on Wednesday that it had identified other 54,728 listings lacking an official license number, which is now mandatory under new legislation enacted on July 1.
(Reporting by Inti Landauro and David Latona; Editing by Joe Bavier)
The Spanish government, along with city councils and regional authorities, has launched a crackdown on tourism rentals, targeting 120,000 listings deemed illegal.
The listings were removed because they failed to include the required tourist accommodation license number and did not comply with new legislation enacted on July 1.
Airbnb has attempted to reverse the government's decision in court, arguing that the ministry lacks the authority to regulate short-term rentals.
The ministry identified an additional 54,728 listings that lacked an official license number, which is now mandatory under the new legislation.
The ministry reaffirmed its commitment to enforcing the law and prioritizing the constitutional right to housing over the profits of large multinational companies.
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