There is no uniform Spanish regulation for registered partners, either in material law or in private international law. Some autonomous regions have their own regulations.

Partnerships may be either homosexual or heterosexual, registered or unregistered. There is no general national regulation.

In Andalucía, Aragón, Asturias, Baleares, Canarias and Cantabria, the law on partnerships also contains legal provisions for the existence of a partnership register.

Cataluña only provides for municipal registers. The existence of a partnership is proved by means of authentic instrument.

In Extremadura, Madrid, Navarra, País Vasco, Valencia, Castilla-La Mancha and Castilla-León there is no specific regulation of partnerships; it is contained in the regulations on the partnership register.

Partnership registers are regulated not at national but at regional (autonomic) level, and there are only specific legal previsions in Andalucía, Aragón, Asturias, Baleares, Canarias, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla-León, Extremadura, Galicia, Madrid, País Vasco and Valencia, which also have legal provisions relating to de facto partnerships.

Each autonomous community regulates the register in a different way, and the effects of registration range from being simply declarative to having practical equivalence with marriage. Some autonomous communities do not provide for such a regional register.

There are no specific legal provisions on property for unregistered extramarital partnerships, and even in registered partnerships it is the partners who arrange their property regime (unless otherwise provided by law), with the option of choosing rules analogous to those for marriage. In the absence of any agreement or any specific legal provision, the general provisions of the law of obligations and of the law of property will apply.

Unless otherwise provided, the family home belongs to the owner, unless there are children or an interest in need of protection, in which case the judge will decide.

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