The plan to allocate apartments after Airbnb to people in need has holes. It will be difficult to convince the owner
Prague wants to kill two flies with one blow. It plans to rent apartments from private owners, thus limiting the market for short-term accommodation on Airbnb-type platforms. It has provided real estate to people in need who are finding it difficult to find affordable housing, such as seniors or single women. The program could start operating in June. But whether it attaches will depend mainly on the willingness of the owners.
The Prague City Hall wants to rent apartments through the Municipal Agency (MNA), which it announced in February. He already stated at the time that the agency would be in charge of the city’s cooperation with private apartment owners in order to find housing for socially disadvantaged groups.
After two months, the project took on even more concrete outlines, and if the necessary materials were approved, Prague could start to demand the first flats as early as June.
The metropolis promises to solve two problems at once from the program. On the one hand, it will correct the large market with short-term rentals and at the same time provide a dignified roof over the heads of people in need, which the city’s housing stock is also striving for. However, due to privatization from previous years, it does not have enough apartments.
Prague Councilor for Housing Adam Zábranský (Pirates) specified for the online daily Aktuálně.cz that they do not have to be exclusively apartments that are currently available on accommodation platforms of the Airbnb type. Prague generally targets private owners, but relies on this to reduce the number of short-term rental offers.
According to the Housing Development Strategy, Prague wants a maximum of five thousand flats in the city for short-term rent in 2030. Before the current pandemic, there were more than double them – 11 thousand. The strategy, which is currently also seeking more apartments for people in need, was approved by deputies on Thursday.
“I think that the owners will show interest with some social feeling, or those who do not need to maximize profits or prefer a stable income over higher, but riskier profits,” I believe Zábranský.
For example, owners would not be in danger of suddenly ceasing to occupy their property, as has happened at Airbnb in recent months as a result of the pandemic. There is no such interest in short-term rentals due to the huge decline in tourism. However, many owners solved this by starting to offer flats for normal long-term housing.
“Win-win” solution
However, Zábranský admits that he is not very optimistic about the number of people who would be allowed to live in this way. Prague will not be able to afford to pay market rents. Therefore, renting a metropolis does not pay off for the owners financially as much as if it offered the property to tourists in the short term or even to tenants in the long term.
Pavel Sobíšek, the chief economist of UniCredit Bank, Pavel Sobíšek also matters. “Renting some Airbnb apartments in the city may be a ‘win-win’ solution in a situation where the owners do not expect tourists to return in the foreseeable future and the city lacks apartments for social purposes. all apartments rented via Airbnb are available for social purposes and the question is how many of the remaining owners will be willing to rent to the city, “said Sobíšek for Aktuálně.cz.
Jiří Křejčí, Vice-Chairman of the Czech Association of Landlords and Private Landlords, also noted that real estate management entails considerable costs, especially for human capital. This will lead to an increase in the number of officials at a time when there will be a society-wide demand for a reduction in the state apparatus and savings in city budgets.
However, Zábranský argues that the municipality will guarantee the owners an income, contracts will be concluded for at least two years in case there are any problems with the tenant, it will be solved by the agency.
“We will also insure the flats so that in the event that they have suffered damage that the tenant will not be able to pay, it will not cause large costs for the agency,” added a member of the Pirate Party.
Initially at least fifty apartments
In the pilot phase, which is planned for two years, Prague would like to acquire at least fifty flats. People in need would go to them, for example people from shelters, seniors, single women or single adults or, for example, young adults who have just left the children’s home. According to Zábranský, if he set up, these properties can be offered to other social groups in the future.
“Almost all major cities in the world are dealing with the crisis of housing affordability and excessive tourism. The pandemic provided a good time for change and the opportunity to try some solutions. It will probably not be a large number of flats, but every single parent or senior living with dignity is counted, “commented sociologist Petr Kubala for Aktuálně.cz, who at the Institute of Sociology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (AS CR) works in the Department of Socioeconomics of Housing.
Like Zábranský, he believes that for some owners the offer may be attractive precisely because of the security of the city’s guaranteed income after a relatively long time. Kubala also reminded that the same program works in Portugal, it was in this southern European state that Prague was inspired.
“The experience of Lisbon and Porto shows that interest in the first round has been rather lukewarm for the time being, but it was nonetheless. Lisbon managed to acquire almost 180 flats in this way, with a target of a thousand. in Prague, “added Kubala.
Metropole has been trying to regulate tourist accommodation services, the most famous of which is Airbnb, I have been trying for a long time. On Wednesday, deputies were supposed to discuss their restrictions, but in the end they did not get to it. There are two proposals in the Chamber of Deputies, one of them from the Prague City Hall. Specifically, it is an amendment to the Trade Licensing Act, which, for example, promotes to limit rentals to a certain number of days a year or to correct the number of accommodated persons. The regulations would be in the hands of the municipalities themselves.
The Socialist Group has also come up with its own proposal, for example, pushing for the short-term persecution of an apartment or house to be limited to thirty days a year.
Prague and its plan for sustainable and standard housing for specific population groups in numbers
Value as of 2019 | Desired value (by 2030 at the latest) | |
Number of municipal social flats (including district) |
1803 | at least 5000 |
Number of municipal dwellings special purpose (including district) |
1415 | at least 2000 |
Number of municipal dwellings set aside for seniors (including district) |
2259 | at least 5000 |
Number of municipal dwellings earmarked for the public beneficial professions (including District) |
2290 | at least 5000 |
Number of apartments rented city rental agency |
0 | at least 500 |
Source: IPR Prague
Estimate of the number of households and persons in acute housing need in Prague (data for 2018)
Households in acute housing need | 9800 |
Number of persons in these households | 12 100 |
Number of children in these households | 1100 |
Families with children in housing need | 540 |
Families in shelters | 65 |
Families in hostels | 140 |
Families with benefits in hostels | 84 |
Children in hostels | 295 |
Children in families with benefits in hostels | 177 |
Children in shelters | 130 |
Homeless people (dormitories, streets, etc.) | 8160 |
Persons in hostels | 1810 |
Seniors in hostels | 220 |
Seniors with benefits in hostels | 88 |
Persons in shelters | 580 |
Source: Social Housing Platform and Lumos Charity
Video: Airbnb providers are like the mafia, the police often do not get into the apartments, says Městecký
There is a mafia of Airbnb providers in Prague, they are often foreigners who have never been in those houses. Regulation is a media game, it should enforce laws. | Video: DVTV, Emma Smetana