Apartments Rented through Airbnb Will Need to be Re-licensed
In July, a roundtable organized by The Prague Institute of Planning and Development (IPR Prague) discussed the problem of short-term renting of apartments in the Czech Republic. The head of the department, Ondřej Boháč, noted an increase in the number of Airbnb apartments to the same level as before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The discussion was also attended by the Mayor of Prague, who spoke negatively about the operation of hotels in residential buildings. In his opinion, the state should control and regulate the short-term rental sector according to the clear regulations and not as formally as it does currently.
Prague's Councillor for Legislation Hana Kordová Marvanová carried out a legal analysis of the problem of hotels of this type. It shows that an apartment must be used for permanent residence, which is intended for housing and has the appropriate legal status. If the owner of the apartment rents it out for a short period of time during most of the year, it will be necessary to re-license the property as an accommodation facility. To do this, you will need to contact the building authorities, who have the authority to approve the application and make the legal change to housing status.
The development of a methodical action plan for building authorities was also discussed. The bureaucratic process is quite complicated and the authorities cannot handle such a time burden. Monitoring of the situation is also rather weak and more thorough controls are needed. The possibility of initiating negotiations with the Ministry of Regional Development of the Czech Republic to develop a methodological action plan and to assist building authorities in inspections was considered. In this respect, we can expect that in the near future the market for short-term rentals will be even more strictly regulated and the residents of Prague will no longer have to deal with the inconveniences caused by mini-hotels in their homes.
