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Transcript
- Ben: Good morning and welcome to your short-term rental bulletin. So, tomorrow, Brussels hands every city in Europe a legal instruction menu for capping short-term rentals. So, what's going on here? The European Commission presents its Affordable Housing Act on Wednesday, the 9th of September, tomorrow. Reuters and Euronews have both seen the draft, and it does something no EU text has done before it, and it gives National and local authorities explicit legal cover to cap short-term rentals in areas under housing stress. So, how does this work? Here is the mechanism. Authorities assess housing stress using the price to income ratio, how it has moved over time, plus indicators showing the pressure is unlikely to ease. Reporting puts the trigger at house prices of eight. Times local income risen over the past decade with no improvement expected within the next three years. Now, the part that really I think does matter to you is if a draft that says quantitative caps or grandfathering rules that let those already operating in a city on or under existing regulations can could be more appropriate than an outright ban. Renting your own primary residence is exempt and the target is commercial operators running multiple properties. So why this is bigger than another city crackdown. Since the Cali apartments judgments in September 2020, any city wanting to restrict short term rentals has had to defend its proportionality in court case by case. This draft handsome a template instead for And the pressure behind it is real. Eurostat has done EU house prices up 64.9% since 2015, against rents up 21.8%. The Commission's own research service says that Europe needs more than 2 million new homes by the year 2035. Now, the platforms argue that short-term rentals are 1.2% of EU housing stock. And that may be true, but that argument just hasn't gained traction so far. So one caution is that this is a leaked draft, not law. It goes to Member States and Parliament next, and the numbers can still move. If grandfathering survives, the license you hold today is worth more than the one issued after the caps arise, and compliance stops being a cuss and really starts being an asset. So from Wednesday, the most valuable thing about a license may be the date it was issued. That's your Tuesday bulletin. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you tomorrow.