flat prices Archives – Prague Morning

Lisbon mayor Fernando Medina has pledged to ‘get rid of Airbnb’ once the coronavirus pandemic is over.

In a text written in English for the UK’s Independent, Mr. Medina admits that a third of the city center has been lost to holiday rentals, incurring incalculable social consequences.

The new Renda Segura (Secure Income) program launched in the Portuguese capital aims to enable key workers to return to the city center after being priced out due to a tourism boom.

The program works like this: Landlords afraid of their apartments lying empty can apply to rent them to the municipality, for a minimum term of five years. The city in turn takes on the burden of finding tenants, through an affordable housing program targeted at young people and lower-income families.

Rents are capped at levels between 450 euros per month for a one-bedroom to 1,000 euros for a generously sized house. For landlords, the income from these fixed rents might be lower than they could have earned from renting to tourists, but it is at least risk and hassle-free, and exempts them from both property and capital gains taxes.

The aim is to sign up 1,000 rentals this year. So far they have had 177 applications.

“We’ve paid a social price,” said Medina. “Essential workers and their families have increasingly been forced out as Airbnb-style holiday rentals have taken over a third of Lisbon’s city center properties, pushing up rental prices, hollowing out communities and threatening its unique character.”

Protesters demonstrate against evictions and rising rent prices in central Lisbon in September 2018.

In a statement, Airbnb said that it “helps local families stay in Lisbon and 60 percent of local hosts say the additional income they earn from hosting means they can pay the bills and support their families.”

Medina’s plan does not mean “we don’t want tourism or need visitors to return to Lisbon as quickly as possible”, he adds.“It’s simply time we do things differently and visitors will ultimately benefit”.

Why do tourists love Airbnb?

Mayor Fernando Medina’s decision to get rid of Airbnb as soon as the COVID pandemic is over does not please tourists. Indeed, this famous Portuguese city attracts a lot of visitors, yet organizing a tourist stay there is not often easy. An organization like Airbnb offers services that make this task easier. To understand this, we simply need to list the different offers of this agency.

For starters, before booking a trip, the customer can compare prices of airbnb in lisbon with cozycozy.com. Thus, he can choose the proposal that suits him. Rentals with this provider are always available in a local neighborhood, where the visitor can share his days with the locals, taste the local food and soak up the culture of the country.

The main advantage of this offer is its affordability. Indeed, the cost of hotel rooms in this city is very high, this organization allows people who wish to do so, to have a pleasant stay in Lisbon with an affordable budget. In addition to the attractive rates, this provider offers its customers a significant comfort. Also, it gives the possibility to organize trips for couples, families or friends, renting for example a whole apartment at very affordable prices.

It is understandable that visitors do not agree with the decision of the mayor of Lisbon.

The Portuguese capital is not the only European city hoping to curb Airbnb’s prospects.

Ian Brossat, deputy mayor of Paris in charge of housing, said in May that COVID-19 and subsequent fall in short-term rentals provided the city with “a unique opportunity to switch properties previously listed on Airbnb to conventional rentals and ensure that they again benefit Parisians.”

The French capital is looking at buying properties bought as investments and leased exclusively as short-term rentals from landlords who have been hard-hit by the COVID-19 crisis.

Amsterdam banned short-term vacation rentals in three central neighborhoods from July 1. Since the start of the pandemic, the Dutch city has seen 21% more rental homes on the market compared with the same time last year, an increase attributed to the decline of Airbnb’s business.

For the full text of Medina’s article click here

The Berlin Senate on Tuesday approved a five-year rent freeze designed to tame soaring housing costs in the German capital, bowing to pressure from residents angry that their city has become unaffordable.

In practice, this means rental rates will remain in place on 1.5 million of the city’s 1.9 million homes.

To enforce the rule, tenants who sign new contracts could have them checked by the city to verify that rents have not been raised illegally. Meanwhile, existing tenants who pay a rate that the city deems too high could apply to have their rent lowered. (It hasn’t been decided yet what rates are considered too high.)

The Senator for Urban Development and Housing in Berlin, Katrin Lompscher, said the five-year freeze, which was originally planned to take effect in January 2020, would apply retroactively from June 18.

The corporate landlords say that the rent freeze will discourage new building to take up demand; historically, Berlin managed this dynamic through the construction of public housing. The rent freeze exempts new buildings.

By freezing rent increases altogether, things will surely get tougher for landlords. Any renovation plans will now have to be approved by the city to ensure that they are genuinely needed.

Once the new law is in place, renovations will be permitted on the condition that they do not raise the monthly rent by more than €0.50 per square meter. Permits would be granted easily, meanwhile, for such basic essentials as heating system renovation.

Berlin rents have doubled in a decade, rising 7% last quarter alone. Rents nationwide are climbing, and there is a movement for a national rent freeze.

Author: red

Why do tourists love Airbnb?

Tell more about your business

Tell us about your.

Tell us about your.

Tell us about your.

Tell us about your.

Tell us about your.

Thank You, It`s All Good

Tell us about your.