Why Was My Rental Registration Number Rejected? Common Reasons and How to Fix Them
Since July 1, 2025, anyone in Spain renting out a property for short or medium-term stays—such as Airbnb, Booking, etc.—must have the all-important Rental Registration Number, also known as Número de Registro de Alquiler (NRA). If you don’t have it, your listing could be taken down within 48 hours, and fines can go as high as €600,000. (No, that’s not a typo.)
But getting the NRA isn’t as easy as slapping your name on a form. Thousands of applications are being denied—and not always for reasons you’d expect. This is based on reports from legal sites, property groups, and yes, some very frustrated Facebook hosts. Here’s a breakdown of why so many people are getting the dreaded rejection and ways to fix it.
Missing or Mismatched Documents
Let’s start with the obvious one. To get an NRA, you need to submit:
- Exact address
- CRU (Código Registral Único) and cadastral reference number
- Type of rental (entire home, room, seasonal, etc.)
- A valid municipal license
- Supporting documents about the property (e.g. occupancy license, equipment lists)
Many applications get tossed simply because a document is missing, expired, or doesn’t match the official records. For example, if your listed address doesn’t match the cadastral database exactly—even if it’s just a typo—that’s grounds for rejection.
As one unlucky landlord posted online:
“They rejected me because my CRU didn’t match the postal code… I didn’t even know what a CRU was last week.”
No Approval from the Building Community
If your apartment is in a shared building or condominium (known in Spain as a horizontal property), you may need approval from the building’s owners’ association—especially for tourist rentals.
This is a deal-breaker in many places. Some communities have voted to ban short-term rentals entirely or require a 60% approval vote. If you don’t include that approval—or worse, if the president of the community says “no way”—your application gets rejected.
We have recently encountered cases where tourist licences that were previously granted have been denied NRA numbers for this reason.
Wrong Name on Tourist Licence
One of the most common rejections we have come across is the wrong name on the tourist rental licence. Many people have used agencies to manage their property and so the tourist licence is in the name of the company, not the registered owner. This is an outright rejection. Here is a snippet of a rejection letter.
An examination of the aforementioned application and resolution reveals the following uncorrectable defect that affects the registration process: the aforementioned property CRU 2903600027---- -46--- of Estepona 1 - is registered in the name of persons other than those indicated in the resolution provided.
To remedy this, the tourist licence needs to be changed to the name of the registered owner. This is not always an easy task or even possible at times.
Some people have registered the tourist licence in the name of their own company. They then have to prove the relationship between themselves and the company.
Divided Properties and Commercial Activities
A common practice in the past was to split existing properties into smaller apartments. We recently had a case where a property was divided into two separate properties, so the VUT licence our client submitted had expired.
The tourist license from the Autonomous Community of Andalusia corresponding to another property is provided. The one provided in the application is not valid because it is divided horizontally. (Royal Decree 1312/2024, of December 23, regulating the Single Rental Registry procedure and creating the Digital One-Stop Rental Window for the collection and exchange of data related to short-term accommodation rental services).
Many building regulations don’t allow commercial activities, including tourist rentals. So, although properties have been granted a tourist licence in the past the more stringent checks of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda are flagging this and rejecting them. The owner must then obtain approval from the community of owners in writing.
Cadastral Chaos
The system checks your property against the Spanish cadastral registry, and if your CRU or address doesn’t match exactly, your application hits a wall.
One applicant shared: “They said the address on the catastro didn’t match my license. I looked—and yep, I’d uploaded the license from my other rental by mistake.”
If you have had your NRA application rejected, contact us as we may be able to appeal on your behalf or reapply for you.
How Many Are Being Rejected?
Euro Weekly News reports that as of July 1, Spain’s Digital One‑Stop Rental Registry (“Ventanilla Única”) received a staggering 215,438 applications, and only 94,209 registration numbers were definitively activated. Meanwhile, 102,732 remained provisional (under review), and 18,497 applications were revoked—i.e., officially rejected by the registrar.
Reuters reported in mid-May that Spain’s Consumer Rights Ministry directed Airbnb to block more than 65,000 holiday‑rental listings that lacked proper license numbers or accurate ownership information. This was part of a sweeping national effort to enforce compliance with the new registration rules.
NRA Number Application Figures as of July 1st 2025
| Applications Submitted | ~215,438 |
| Registrations Fully Approved | 94,209 |
| Provisional Registrations | 102,732 |
| Definitively Rejected | 18,497 |
| Airbnb Listings Blocked | 65,000–66,000 |
| Immediate Listings Removed | 5,800 (in first batch) |
These figures show that about 8.6% of applications submitted by July 1 were definitively rejected (18,497 of 215,438). Meanwhile, authorities have already pulled tens of thousands of non-compliant listings from platforms like Airbnb.
• A substantial number of applications—nearly 1 in 12—have been outright rejected.
• Online platforms are actively enforcing the rule by removing tens of thousands of unlicensed listings.
With hundreds of thousands of applications in the pipeline, this enforcement push is still unfolding.
NRA Rejections in Andalucía
According to Cadena SER, by June 30, Andalucía had filed 51,470 rental registration applications (49,397 tourist and 2,073 seasonal). Of these:
- 20,950 fully activated
- 25,370 provisional (pending registrar review)
- 5,150 revoked (including 4,920 tourist properties)
In percentage terms, approximately 10% of all submitted applications in Andalucía have already been officially revoked—a rate similar to the national average, but with a notable volume due to Andalucía leading Spain in the number of applications.
The Junta de Andalucía has taken concrete action by cancelling 6,771 tourist rental registrations since 2024—2,397 of them in the province of Málaga alone, including 1,134 in Málaga city (Cadena SER).
More recently, over 9,200 irregular tourist rentals were struck off the regional registry in the same timeframe—3,426 in Málaga province and 1,087 in Seville.
So, if you own a rental property in Málaga and it doesn’t meet urban or tourism requirements, there’s a strong chance it has been flagged.
The Junta continues to challenge the national unified registry (RD 1312/2024), arguing it:
- Encroaches on regional authority in housing and tourism regulation
- Lacks coordination and sanctioning mechanisms, causing confusion
- Should allow regional data access and enforcement control
They’ve filed legal actions, demanded emergency inter-governmental conferences, and warned that the national registry lacks clarity and legal substance. As of yet, there has been no ruling.
What This Means for Hosts in Andalucía
Essential takeaways for anyone renting in Andalucía:
- Expect a rejection rate of around 10% across all applications—similar to the rest of Spain.
- Cancellation hot zones: Málaga, Seville, Granada, Cádiz, Almería—these already have thousands of withdrawn registrations.
- Applications can be revoked for failure to meet urban planning requirements, lack of a municipal licence, or illegal listing.
- The regional government is actively enforcing and cancelling non-compliant rentals.
Andalucía’s political resistance might delay full implementation, but the registry is already operational and enforceable.
If you’re in Andalucía… especially in Málaga or Seville—protect your rental by:
- Confirming compliance with both municipal and regional license requirements.
- Checking your property is not located in a restricted or saturated zone.
- Acting swiftly on any notifications, since the Junta has the authority to revoke registrations at scale.
- Keep up to date with any changes in legislation and sign up for our NRA Annual Renewal Service.
Staying proactive could be the difference between keeping your rental live—or seeing it yanked. If you need assistance with applying for your NRA number or would like to appeal a rejection, please contact us today.