EU to Propose Short-Term Rental Rules to Tackle Social Crisis in Housing
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Housing CrisisShort-Term RentalsEU Regulations
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Housing Crisis
Short-Term Rentals
EU Regulations
The EU plans to introduce regulations on short-term rentals to address the housing crisis, sparking consideration of the potential impact on affordable housing.
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Airbnb took the couch surfing model and added payment for people who couldn’t or didn’t want to participate in the social exchange, and when it was people renting out a spare room it was pretty rad.
Now you have holiday slumlords with a managers and cleaners that expect you to strip beds, load washers and alike, all while running the risk of being filmed in the bathroom or being trapped in a building not up to fire regs cause it was never intended to be a hotel.
If you and your kids are filmed in the bathroom or if you book accommodation well in advance of a big sporting event and the host realised they’ve missed an opportunity to gouge and cancels to re-list, you’re often SOL.
In Australia you don’t need to be a car dealer to buy and sell a car, but if you make a business out of the regular sale of buying and selling cars then you need to register as a car dealer and acquire a licence. The same thing needs to happen to platform rentals where the host is doing more than renting a room or letting their home while on holiday.
Without taking into account build requirements for accessibility and fire safety, in many LGAs in Australia the local rates/taxes are higher for investment properties, and if a property was zoned as a residence a town planning application for a change of use needs to be submitted.
For examples sake this may be an extra $1000-2000 per year for taxes and $5000-10000 one off for the approval, however the fines for not notifying/undertaking are often less than $1000, meanwhile a hotel with a non-compliant fire suppression system or expired licence will be promptly shut and fined enthusiastically.
Like Uber, Airbnb thrived on a lack of regulation but similar to uber a big chunk of their “fleet” has degraded to the point where they’re just as bad as what we had before, gross cabs and shitty hotels.
Would this be a popular approach, not a chance, people have built serious portfolios of AirBnb properties but people should be able to live and participate THEIR cities and communities.