If you’re selling or renting out a property in Catalonia, there’s a small but welcome reduction in the region’s mountain of housing bureaucracy. You no longer have to include the details of your habitation certificate (cédula de habitabilidad) in property adverts.

It’s only a small change, but in Catalonia, where new housing regulations almost always mean more paperwork rather than less, it’s worth celebrating.

One less pointless requirement

The Generalitat has quietly dropped one of the more controversial requirements introduced in its recent overhaul of housing legislation.

Until now, property adverts had to include details of the property’s cédula de habitabilidad. Lawyers, estate agents and other property professionals argued the measure served no useful purpose, adding bureaucracy while raising unnecessary privacy and security concerns. Some also pointed out that making administrative details public could make it easier to identify individual properties.

The Generalitat has now agreed. The obligation has been removed.

As a result, sellers, landlords and estate agents no longer need to include cédula details in online listings, brochures or other advertising material.

What hasn’t changed

Don’t misunderstand what this means.

The cédula de habitabilidad has not been abolished.

If your property requires one, you must still have a valid cédula in order to sell or rent it. The document remains a legal requirement and must still be produced during the conveyancing process, including at completion before the notary.

The only thing that has changed is that you no longer have to publish its reference number and other details in your advertising.

Catalonia’s bureaucracy problem

This reform highlights a wider problem with housing policy in Catalonia.

No region in Spain imposes more political intervention, bureaucracy and administrative burdens on the housing market. Again and again, new regulations increase costs and paperwork without producing any obvious benefit for buyers, sellers or tenants.

The requirement to publish cédula details was a perfect example. It didn’t make buyers better informed. It didn’t improve consumer protection. It simply created another compliance exercise for owners and estate agents.

Fortunately, common sense has prevailed on this occasion.

Does the resale cédula make sense anyway?

The bigger question is whether the resale cédula de habitabilidad should be compulsory at all.

Catalonia and the Balearic Islands are the only regions of Spain where a cédula is legally required to complete the sale of a resale property. Elsewhere, properties change hands perfectly well without this additional document.

A habitation certificate for a newly-built home is another matter. There are obvious reasons for certifying that a brand-new property meets legal standards before anyone moves in.

But requiring another certificate every time an existing home is sold is much harder to justify.

For most sellers, the resale cédula is simply another administrative hurdle costing around €150, alongside the Energy Efficiency Certificate, another mandatory document whose practical value is often questioned. Together they add cost and paperwork without making the transaction materially better for buyers.

The main beneficiaries are the professionals who issue the certificates and the bureaucratic system that requires them.

A rare victory for common sense

Nobody should overstate the significance of this change. Sellers in Catalonia still need a valid cédula before they can complete a sale or rental where one is legally required.

Nevertheless, removing the obligation to publish its details in adverts is a welcome retreat from an obviously unnecessary rule.