by Laura Cavestri
From today the law is in force which allows the short-term rental only of apartments where the hosts, i.e. the owners or renters, reside in person and are actually present. In Italy, for now, we are talking about it
5′ of reading
In Europe they are trying (and not always successfully, as in Amsterdam). From today, New York has joined the cities that aim to limit the phenomenon of “short-term rentals”. In fact, from Tuesday 5 September a law came into force according to which, after registration in a public municipal register, only apartments can be offered for short-term rent where the hosts, i.e. the owners or tenants, reside in person and are actually present. Not only. Guests cannot be more than two.
The case of New York
AirbnbIn order to collect commissions on short-term rentals, Vrbo and Booking.com will therefore have to make sure that whoever makes their home available has obtained the necessary authorization. Hefty penalties: Hosts who violate the rules could face fines of up to $5,000 for repeat offenders, and platforms could be fined up to $1,500 for transactions involving illegal rentals.
Stringent rules, effectively putting out of business cozy two- and three-bedroom apartments near museums for families, and even the ability for people to rent out their apartment on the weekends when they’re away. Although AirbnbVrbo and other operators can continue to operate in New York, the new rules are so strict that they result in a “de facto ban” on their business and the disappearance of thousands of listings.
Short-term rentals through Airbnb and other platforms have pushed up rents and exacerbated the city’s housing crisis, according to local authorities. However, many criticize the new rules and accuse the city of having bowed to the hotel lobby, with the result of eliminating cheaper alternatives for visitors.
The short-term rental association: unjustified decision
«What must be made clear immediately – underlined Marco Celani, president of Aigab, the Italian association of short-term rental managers – is that the number of houses that in New York City are made profitable with short-term rentals is really negligible and irrelevant. In fact, in August 2023, the Inside Airbnb portal mapped around 43,000 online listings in New York City, of which 42% are shared rooms and 56% entire homes. Compared to the total of existing homes in the Big Apple (which are approximately 7.8 million), we are therefore talking about an incidence of 0.5% of the total advertised and 0.1% of those frequently and habitually rented. These are data that clearly demonstrate that the decision to limit short-term rentals is unjustified and responds to the need to satisfy particular interests and does not respond to a real alarm”.
In 2022 alone, short-term rental ads brought in $85 million in New York. While the city represents a relatively small slice of the global Airbnb market, the new rules show how local governments can affect this segment of the rental market with local regulations and put it in crisis. New York, in fact, is not the only city that has moved in this direction.
The precedents of stopping short-term rentals
And everyone is taking a different approach. Dallas has limited short-term rentals to specific neighborhoods to avoid loud and dangerous parties. The Canadian province of Quebec and Memphis, Tennessee now require short-term rental licenses. In San Francisco, the amount of time someone can rent out their entire residence on Airbnb is limited to 90 days a year.
Not only. California Senate Bill 584 — known as the Laborforce Housing Financing Act — if passed aims to tax 15% of short-term rental prices, which the bill defines as stays of no more than 30 days in homes, houses or lodgings other than a hotel, motel, inn or bed and breakfast – starting in 2025. Lawmakers have projected that the bill could generate approximately $150 million in tax revenue each year, which would be deposited into a fund to affordable housing created by the same bill.
In New York, Airbnb has tried to challenge the new law, to date without success.
In Europa
In July three years ago the bans were also triggered in Amsterdam: it is possible to rent out one’s homes to tourists only with specific permits, a maximum of 4 people at a time and for no more than 30 days a year. A limit that Paris had brought to 120 days. Berlin had previously banned almost all Airbnb establishments but adopted the decision in 2018.
However, just in July of this year, the highest Dutch administrative body, the Council of State – The Raad van State – had established that the municipality of Amsterdam cannot prohibit residents of certain districts of the city center (Burgwallen Oude Zijde, Burgwallen Nieuwe Zijde and Grachtengordel-Zuid) to rent out their houses to tourists.
In Berlin, the ban has been lifted, but strict rules remain, enforced with heavy fines. Airbnb hosts in the city must have a permit to rent an entire property on a short-term basis. Second homes can be rented for up to 90 days a year
In Italy
Waiting to understand if and what restrictions will come with the “Santanchè” bill, in July, the demand for second homes for short-term rent (compared to the same period in 2022) grew by 25%, with a slight decrease in the cities of art and an increase in other seaside and tourist resorts. This is underlined by the data processed by the Aigab Study Center on an AirDNA basis. In Italy – in densely touristic areas – it is a business that also allows you to generate income from an apartment, saving you from disputes and legal disputes with tenants who don’t pay or don’t leave the apartment at the end of the traditional contract and which are particularly long in Italy.
At the end of May, however, under pressure from cities such as Florence, Rome, Venice which were pressing for some form of limitation of the phenomenon, a draft law was proposed by the Minister of Tourism, Daniela Santanchè, which would oblige the obtainment of a code national identifier (with associated penalties for those caught in default) and would like to introduce a minimum stay of 2 nights in municipalities with a high tourist density, which would include 14 metropolitan cities (which are Milan, Rome, Turin, Genoa, Bologna, Florence, Venice, Naples, Bari, Reggio Calabria, Palermo, Catania, Messina and Cagliari) and some very touristic towns. The text is being examined by a technical table with Municipalities and sector operators but in the summer it does not seem to have made substantial progress.
Laura Cavestri
Economics Editor
View on ilsole24ore.com
2023-09-05 16:41:29
#Airbnb #cracks #shortterm #rentals #York
