[ad_1]
While the rental supply is at its peak when looking at the entire Hungarian market, according to real estate.com, 25,416 property advertisers were looking for tenants in December, the situation is completely different in Budapest, especially if we examine the rental data short-term housing, including airbnbs. In this sense, we seek the answer to the question
how the Covid crisis transformed or rather shook the short-term rental market in the capital.
How many of the airbnbs survive, or how many have given up and moved to long-term housing or got rid of their properties?
The coronavirus epidemic has hit the tourism sector particularly hard, especially after the government ordered a restriction on the entry of foreigners in the spring. The necessary defense measure came as a severe blow to those dealing with housing, which was only made worse when the Hungarian Tourism Agency, citing the hotel lobby, advised the government in the spring to rewrite the regulation of private housing. short term.
The proposal was to rent an apartment for 120 days a year for a short period between May and September. It has been suggested that this system also works in several major cities such as London, Amsterdam and Barcelona. (See our chart for more details.)
The 120-day limit was not introduced, which would have put airbnb-type homes on a fatal path, but the government amended the Commercial Law in July (Law 2020 / XCVI).
In this, he passed some of the detailed regulations on short-term housing spending to local governments, as well as promising government decrees on new rules, but in the absence of these, it now appears the ball is bouncing in the local government space.
It’s hard to see clearly
A company called Airdna collects data on available accommodation globally and according to them the number of mobile accommodation in Budapest was around 14,000 in the first quarter of 2020, falling to around 7,300 in mid-November. However, this figure does not match the number of apartments / rooms for short-term rent.
In addition, the American company is trying to collect data informally through continuous scraping, or mainly groping. Therefore, however, the inactive accommodations remain in the aggregate and there are also many duplicates, completely overestimating the total number of short-term accommodations.
The Association of Responsible Accommodation Publishers (FSZKSZ) prepared a more accurate analysis, which was also obtained by the Index. The document was prepared by Mihály Rege, the leader of the association, with his colleagues for consultation with local governments.
The source of the data was the FSZKSZ based on data from real estate magazines, city reports, the CSO and Airbnb. The aim of the summary was to present the economic, social and municipal effects of short-term housing spending and to provide solutions to the regulatory issues (public complaints, blackening, etc.) surrounding short-term housing spending, especially airbnb.
In the short term, flats are most frequently rented in the inner districts of Budapest, with the highest proportion in fifth and sixth place. and VII. district. (An interesting result of the study is that the rent increase is mainly related to districts (II., XII., XIV.) Where airbnb homes are negligible. According to the study, it also has a strong effect on the movement of rents, what percentage of homes are offered for long-term rental in that district.
25-30 percent decrease
According to Airbnb, in 2018, approximately 2,900 (complete) apartments were rented in Budapest for at least 180 days via the Airbnb interface. Based on this, the statement estimates that, along with all other surfaces (HomeAway, booking.com, Expedia), approximately 5,800 apartments were for short-term rent at the time, representing approximately 0.6 percent. of the total capital housing market. In 2019, the number of short-term rented apartments increased, the increase resulted in that at the end of last year, there were a total of around 7-8,000 apartments for rent in the capital.
But due to this year’s travel restrictions caused by the coronavirus crisis, the number of bookings dropped dramatically and many airbnbs went “safe” and rented their property for a longer period. The FSZKSZ made an estimate based on data requested from its members, which showed that between 25 and 30 percent of former airbnbers had arranged for long-term expenses or given up their home.
This was still the mid-summer state when the analysis was conducted. Since then, recent border closures and other restrictions have further reduced the number of actively operating accommodations. According to Mihály Rege
By now, the number of those who have stopped spending in the short term may be well over 50 percent. Up to 3,000-4,000 homes could remain, which is available on airbnb and other similar surfaces.
For example, those who renovated and rented homes on credit did not receive a stable income to repay, so they were trapped and had to give up the property.
The owners wait and wait
We spoke with a landlord who was taking care of only one apartment and, in his own words, he chose the “safe path”, renting his apartment for a longer term starting in October. Before February, between 80, February and October, he was able to rent his apartment with an occupancy of approximately 20 to 40 percent. Although in the summer, after relaxation, many of the tourists who did not want to spend time in the same space with others in a hotel wanted to airbnb, but the autumn Covid wave ended.
According to him, in the field of “bleeding Budapest” airbnbing, as the island was left behind, the European Football Championship was postponed (there would have also been matches in Budapest), cultural festivals were canceled, all of which would have attracted tourists. mass.
There are many of your acquaintances who can do it by waiting, not renting their apartment for a longer period of time. Like our speaker, they are also waiting for foreigners to come to Hungary again in the spring. They will be able to choose from a completely screened Airbnb market, as thousands have thrown in the towel, and in today’s inner districts, much stricter standards can be rented for short-term housing, so few will be able to enter that market.
Then those who survive the tight months due to the epidemic will be able to start over with less competition.
Another airbnb owner told Index that at the time of the first adjustment in the spring, he discontinued the short-term edition and switched to a 3-month edition and then a one-year edition. Not very optimistic about the “opening” of spring. He believes that most of those who occupy an apartment have for sure left and rented their apartment for a longer period of time.
For multi-apartment investors, it is often determined how long they can wait for
if they can pay the loan contracted for renovated properties for airbnb even without losing days of accommodation due to the virus situation.
Operators with more than one apartment also bleed from various injuries, as they may have had to give up housing and cleaning staff, and if they switch to long-term expenses, they will no longer be able to maintain a full-time airbnb with a margin. less.
He believes the airbnb community will be further scrutinized by the fact that annual taxes will have to be paid in January with little income in 2020, and the latest rules are too strict for many owners (scanning incoming guest documents, for example) and these additional charges. they no longer want to carry it. The other problem is that
Although the state has launched a lifeline in the form of subsidies to airbnb, very few can use it.
This is because only those who have entered their reservations into the guest room recording software before the beginning of November are eligible for epidemic support. But in the simplified mode used by prime tenants, it is not possible to register nights in advance, so many have been left without compensation.
Mihály Rege and members of FSZKSZ, as our first speaker, are looking forward to the rebound in April-May. Rege added that district governments are taking a positive and constructive approach to the question of how to whiten the housing market and how to address the residential stresses posed by housing.
“The municipalities do not want to stifle the market, it is clear, and there is also no general resistance from the public, although some newspaper articles highlight this. We still do not have information on what is expected from the government, a development is expected next year ”.
– So Mihály Rege.
Unrealistic austerity
“We are also in contact with the hotel association and I think they have understood it too: the 120-day limit, which means being able to rent apartments for just one year in the short term, would execute this market. And this, as a number of research has shown, dramatically reduces the overall appeal of a given destination. There are very few places in the world with this system, precisely because it is not realistic for someone to rent the property for short periods of 120 days and then, let’s say, half a year, ”explains Mihály Rege. Advocates of a 120-day limit often cite London, Barcelona, and Amsterdam as examples of cities where short-term housing is available.
Mihály Rege strongly qualifies the panorama: in London, the 120-day restriction is lifted after a positive evaluation of the urban planning procedure, in Berlin the system was abolished after a year, currently, according to the president of the association, only Amsterdam applies this rule to more popular destinations; It also introduced certain restrictions to curb the influx of tourists. And in Barcelona, such a restriction has never been applied, new permits are simply not being issued, not even for the construction of hotels. In a much smaller but much more visited city than Budapest, they are also struggling with “excessive tourism” and not being drastically restricted due to the resolution of the housing crisis. Mihály Rege emphasized that several studies address this issue; due to the limitation of the number of days that can be issued. The authors also suggest monitoring the growth of Airbnb homes, but found that mild tax measures were appropriate. However, the researchers clearly found that daily restriction is the worst performing solution.
Top image: Airbnb accommodation safes outside a house in Budapest, Nagy Diófa street. MTVA / Curator: Eszter Turbéky
[ad_2]
