Latest news with #housingRegulation
South China Morning Post
10 hours ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong shoebox flat owners urged to comply with shake-up after years of profits
Hong Kong's housing minister has urged the owners of substandard subdivided flats to comply with a coming regulatory regime that is expected to cost landlords after years of huge profits. The appeal from Secretary for Housing Winnie Ho Wing-yin on Sunday came two days after the government gazetted the Basic Housing Units Bill, which aims to phase out subpar living spaces. The move follows calls from Xia Baolong, Beijing's top official on Hong Kong affairs, for the city to 'bid farewell to subdivided flats and 'cage homes''. Ho on Sunday said: 'When you subdivided a flat into many partitions back then, it was expensive … You still did it because [you] felt that the rental income provided a return. This was a market decision.' She also pointed out that landlords had enjoyed years of profits as a result of their investments. 'Our society has a demand and hopes that [low-income households], when in need, can have living spaces with basic sanitary conditions and a basic amount of room,' the minister said.
Times
24-05-2025
- Business
- Times
Spain has banned some Airbnbs. This is why they're right to do so
No one expects the Spanish Inquisition — least of all, it seems, the nation's Airbnb proprietors. The news last week that the left-wing government had demanded the immediate removal of 66,000 short-term rental properties from the website was met by a stunned silence, but the landlords really should have seen it coming. The Ministry of Social Rights, Consumption and Agenda 2030 — a Spanish government department similar to the UK's now defunct Office of Fair Trading — says many of the properties in question have been deemed illegal because their listings do not show a licence or registration number. Others because the licence number doesn't correspond with official records and some because it's not clear whether the owner is an individual or a corporation. Three warnings were sent to Airbnb before the axe came down, with Pablo Bustinduy the minister wielding it. Formerly a professor of philosophy at the State University of New York, he returned to Spain in May 2011 to participate in the widespread protests against austerity, corruption and inequality that spawned the 15-M movement. He then joined Podemos: a party founded on the principle that all wealth was subordinate to the needs of the people. Accepting his current role in November 2023, Bustinduy tweeted that he would dedicate his time to 'expanding social rights, an essential condition of democracy, to defending a fair and sustainable consumption model, and to making Spain a benchmark for development and equality'. And it looks like he means it. According to 2024 data from the Spanish statistics office (INE), there were 351,389 short-term rentals advertised in Spain on the Airbnb, and Vrbo sites. Last week Bustinduy chopped that by 65,935 — or just under 20 per cent. 'It is possible to ensure that no economic interest prevails over the right to housing and that no company, no matter how large or powerful, places itself above the law,' he announced before warning foot-dragging local administrations across Spain that he'd had enough of officials 'protecting those who profit from the right to housing. You must act; there are no excuses for inaction. Demand the removal of advertisements for illegal tourist apartments.' The 65,935 holiday rentals in question have not been closed down, but Bustinduy's insistence that they are removed from Airbnb's listings effectively takes them off the market until they toe the line. Will existing bookings be cancelled? Almost certainly not, and because Airbnb is questioning the legality of the ruling, some of the affected properties may be reinstated to the platform. Last summer the tourism minister for the Balearic Islands government, Jaume Bauzá, told me of a plan to hit illegal landlords who, rather than promoting a property on Airbnb, or Vrbo, advertise by word of mouth, on community websites or social media to friends, neighbours and work colleagues. The money changes hands outside of Spain and the clients might come and go undetected. Time is now running out for those operating outside of official channels. A new campaign in Menorca warns landlords 'rent your house illegally and get a €400,000 fine'. In Ibiza, more than 700 unregistered holiday rentals have been shut down since February. In Mallorca a team of inspectors has been ordered to shut down illegal rentals. Beyond the Balearics, in Andalusia, Galicia and elsewhere, more properties are likely to vanish from the booking sites as the Spanish pitbull Bustinduy gnaws on a bone of contention with a doggedness that will endear him to Spain's voters. The trend could even go international. Airbnb's busiest developing markets are fast catching up with Spain in terms of numbers of properties let. Public resentment will inevitably follow, inspiring ambitious politicians to target short-term lets to appeal to populist sentiment. That could shake consumer confidence in a global corporation which, in 2016, encouraged tourists to 'live like locals' while those same locals were being evicted from long-term rentals so that landlords could profit from tourists. So I'm on Bustinduy's side. Renting an apartment or a house somewhere lovely for your holidays may seem like an innocent activity that saves you a few quid, but it has caused misery in Spain. • The secret Spanish isles so beautiful you need a ticket to visit In 2015 my friend Luis — a chef in Barcelona — was living in an apartment across the square from the restaurant where he worked. His wife Carolina, a critical care nurse, could cycle to the hospital, and Luis had time between shifts to take their daughter to and from school. Then their landlord terminated the lease so that he could convert the flat into a short-term let. The only affordable alternative accommodation was a 60-minute commute away. Luis could still take his daughter to school, but he couldn't collect her. Nor could Carolina when she was on shift. As for the dog, he had to go because the family couldn't find anywhere that allowed pets. 'We'd only had him a few months,' said Luis. 'We got him from our neighbour when she was evicted.' Everyone in Spain's tourist hotspots knows someone, it seems, with a similar story. Last August, while making a film about overtourism in Palma, Mallorca, I met a couple carrying their possessions down the street. Claudia and Alberto, both born in Palma, had just had their long-term lease cancelled and were moving out of the city because there was nowhere else to rent. 'Everything is Airbnb,' said Claudia. 'I know that people love this city for the sun and the beach and I want to share. But now I have nothing to share.' Just around the corner a poster proclaimed: 'tourism does not feed the poor. It just makes the rich fatter' — and this raises some awkward questions. • The destinations broken by tourism — and how we fix them Do any of us wish to be complicit in the eviction of people like Luis and Claudia? Do we want our presence in Barcelona, Palma, Madrid, Seville or Las Palmas to be welcomed or resented? Rented apartments almost always beat hotels on price: next weekend £350 will get you either a twin-bedded cupboard in a three-star hotel in Madrid's Puerta del Sol or, a few streets away, an entire former residential apartment that sleeps four and has an outdoor terrace. But, is bagging that bargain the most important consideration here? Companies such as Airbnb, and Vrbo would argue quite rightly that not all short-term lets are a drain on housing stocks. Renting a self-catered holiday villa on a beach in Menorca, a luxury serviced apartment in Barcelona or a spare room in a house in Jerez might not help those working in the hotel and restaurant industries, but it's not robbing locals of their homes. So be selective. Look at the photos and the location — Google Street View will show you if the property is in a residential neighbourhood. Ask yourself if that cosy apartment with the views of the cathedral from the terrace is the kind of place where a now-displaced family might once have had a home? If so, look elsewhere. Or book a hotel and spread the love. What are your thoughts on the ban? Let us know in the comments below
