What the register is
Ley 5/2025, Andalusia’s housing law, created the Registro de Agentes Inmobiliarios Especializados del Sector Residencial de Andalucía, a register of the estate agents who work with homes in Andalusia. The law was published in the BOJA on 24 December 2025 and in the BOE on 8 January 2026, and it has been in force since 24 January 2026 (final provision eight).
The law calls the register public, administrative, free of charge and compulsory, and places it under the Junta’s housing department (art. 50). It is meant for anyone who, habitually and for pay, as a professional or a business, provides intermediation, advice and management services for buying, renting, exchanging or assigning residential property (art. 49.1).
Joining would work through a declaración responsable: a signed statement, made before starting work, that the requirements are met; the authorities can ask for proof at any time. It would have to be renewed periodically (art. 51).
What Ley 5/2025 says today
The text has not changed since it was published: the BOE’s consolidated version is still the original, and the only correction printed since, in March 2026, fixes a slip in the list of repealed rules. These are the passages that matter to an agent.
“…and who must register in the register that the department responsible for housing will create for that purpose.”
“Registration in the Register will be a necessary requirement for carrying out the activity in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia.”
“The requirements and the rules on organisation and operation will be set out and developed by regulation.”
“Within two years at most of this law coming into force, the department responsible for housing will take the measures needed to create, regulate and open the Register…”
So the law makes registration compulsory, but leaves the register itself, its detailed rules and its forms for later. The two years run from 24 January 2026, which puts the deadline at 24 January 2028. The forms are to be approved by a resolution of the Junta’s Secretaría General de Vivienda (additional provision one), and a July 2026 decree put that same office in charge of the register’s “development and coordination” (Decreto 197/2026, art. 6.2.n). On 19 October 2026, a search of the BOJA for the register’s name returned those two texts and nothing else.
What changed on 18 September 2026
The Spanish government raised objections to parts of the law, and the two governments agreed to negotiate over 16 of its articles and one final provision. Arts. 49 to 52 are among them: four of the register’s five articles, the fifth being art. 53 on the guarantee and insurance. That agreement was published in the BOE and the BOJA on 13 April 2026.
On 18 September 2026 the Junta announced that the talks had ended in an agreement, which it says closes the dispute without an appeal to the Constitutional Court. On the register, its announcement says:
“…the Junta will promote the legislative adjustments needed to remove compulsory registration as a requirement for access to the activity, and to bring its rules into line with the principles of proportionality and market unity. It will also be made clear that the requirements laid down are alternatives, and that state rules on membership of professional associations apply.”
Put plainly, three changes are announced:
- registration would no longer be a condition for working as an agent in Andalusia;
- the law would say clearly that its requirements are alternatives;
- the state rules on membership of professional associations would apply.
On 19 October 2026 the BOE published the agreement (BOE-A-2026-21762), adopted on 17 September by the bilateral commission’s subcommittee. On the register it says:
“…the Junta de Andalucía undertakes to promote the corresponding legislative amendment in order to remove the references to compulsory registration for access to the activity.”
“…as regards article 52, that amendment will state that the requirements it lists are alternatives, meeting one of them being enough.”
The same point adds that the amended law will leave professional association membership to national rules, and the agreement itself provides for publication in the BOJA too. It sets no date for the amendment: on 19 October 2026, no law amending Ley 5/2025 had been published, and its consolidated text on the BOE is still the original.
What it means for you
This section only restates the texts above. It does not say whether any particular person meets the requirements.
What applies today
- The law’s text still makes registration a requirement (art. 50.3), and it has not been amended.
- The register has not been set up, so there is no register to join and no declaration form to file.
- National law still allows estate agency work to be done by individuals and companies “without needing to hold any title, nor to belong to any official college”, without prejudice to the consumer-protection requirements set by the rules that regulate the activity (Ley 10/2003, art. 3, our translation).
What the other regions require, and how to register as self-employed, is in how to become an estate agent in Spain.
What to watch for
- A law or decree-law amending arts. 49 to 52, published in the BOJA. Until one is published, the current text stands.
- The decree that creates and regulates the register, and the resolution approving its forms.
- 24 January 2028, the deadline in final provision seven, unless the amendment changes it.
This page is dated. When any of these is published, we update it and the date at the top.
The requirements, as the law writes them
These are the conditions for joining the register in arts. 51 to 53, as published. In the agreement published in the BOE, the Junta commits to an amendment that makes them alternatives, so that meeting one is enough, and leaves association membership to national rules, so read this as the current text, not as the final list.
| Requirement | What the law says |
|---|---|
| Qualification, art. 52.1 | Four are listed: (a) the official Agente de la Propiedad Inmobiliaria (API) title; (b) a university degree in social and legal sciences, engineering or architecture; (c) at least four years’ experience in estate agency work immediately before applying, shown by a work-history report, self-employed registration or a property franchise contract covering those years; (d) membership of an official college of APIs. |
| Companies, art. 52.1 | At least one director or board member, and the person in charge of the premises open to the public, must meet the requirements. |
| Training, art. 52.2 | At least 100 teaching hours of official training in residential intermediation and protected housing, taken within the four years before the declaration, for the business holder and 50% of its employees. In person, distance or online, from the kinds of centre the article lists. |
| Guarantee or insurance, arts. 52.3 and 53 | One of: a financial guarantee covering the money received in the course of the work, or professional civil liability insurance. The minimum amounts are left to a regulation, based on business volume. |
| Criminal record, art. 52.4 | No criminal record related to property intermediation. This and the guarantee or insurance must be kept up for as long as the agent is registered (art. 52.5). |
| Declaration, art. 51 | A declaración responsable before starting work, covering minimum qualification, solvency, civil liability insurance and a code of good practice, renewed periodically under rules still to be written. |
Timeline
- 24 December 2025
- Ley 5/2025, dated 16 December, is published in the BOJA, no. 247.
- 8 January 2026
- It is published in the BOE as BOE-A-2026-423.
- 24 January 2026
- It comes into force, a month after its publication in the BOJA.
- 13 April 2026
- The BOE and the BOJA publish the agreement to negotiate over 16 articles, arts. 49 to 52 among them.
- 31 July 2026
- Decreto 197/2026 puts the Secretaría General de Vivienda in charge of developing the register.
- 18 September 2026
- The Junta announces the agreement: compulsory registration is to be removed.
- 19 October 2026
- The BOE publishes the agreement (BOE-A-2026-21762).
- 24 January 2028
- Deadline for the register to be created and opened, unless the amendment changes it.
Sources
All checked on 19 October 2026.
- Ley 5/2025, de 16 de diciembre, de Vivienda de Andalucía, consolidated text on the BOE (BOE-A-2026-423).
- The same law as published in the BOJA, no. 247, 24 December 2025.
- BOE-A-2026-8197, the agreement to open negotiations, BOE no. 90, 13 April 2026, and the same agreement in the BOJA, no. 69, 13 April 2026.
- Junta de Andalucía: “Junta y Gobierno alcanzan un acuerdo que resuelve las discrepancias sobre la Ley de Vivienda de Andalucía”, 18 September 2026.
- BOE-A-2026-21762, the resolution of 24 September 2026 publishing the agreement of 17 September 2026 on Ley 5/2025, BOE no. 259, 19 October 2026.
- Decreto 197/2026, de 30 de julio, on the structure of the Junta’s housing department, BOJA extraordinary no. 15, 31 July 2026 (art. 6.2.n).
- Ley 10/2003, de 20 de mayo, art. 3, on the BOE.
- The BOJA search for the register’s name, to see anything published since.
LeadWing is a CRM for independent estate agents in Spain, not a law firm. The rest of our guides are about the daily work, such as following up leads.