New York: a source of inspiration for the next Brussels Government?!
In New York, the end of Airbnb is pushing tourists toward illegality | L’Echo (lecho.be)
Excerpt: “… In addition to rising hotel prices, the rental market reacted contrary to expectations. According to the American property rental website ApartmentList, rents increased by 2.3% in January compared with the previous year …”
In a few years’ time, citizens around the world will thank the New York authorities for having demonstrated in reality what the entire short-term rental sector had predicted. A call for nuance: regulating does not mean banning!
And in Brussels? Here is what will happen in the coming months to give Brussels, the Capital of Europe, what it deserves: a competitive, innovative and sustainable tourism market that preserves the public interest! STR-Belgium is available to political stakeholders of the next Brussels Government to finally enter into a genuine co-construction phase.
At the political level, both opposition and majority parties have understood that what has been applied in Brussels for nearly 10 years (+95% of the market is clandestine), and which Minister-President Rudi Vervoort is attempting to renew with stronger fines through his new ordinance published in the Belgian Official Gazette on February 7, serves only particular interests at the expense of the general interest. Rewatch the plenary session in Parliament on January 26 to be convinced.
At the legal level, the Constitutional Court will be called upon to rule on this new ordinance in the coming months. For those who still doubt: it is obviously absolutely out of the question for the sector to accept this new ordinance, which is as biased as it is!
Last but not least, the European Union will implement its sector regulation project by 2026, which took another step forward in the European Parliament on February 29. Concretely: no registration number = no listing on platforms. However, the local rules that will lead (or not) to obtaining a registration number will have to comply with the EU Services Directive. The very recent Irish, Catalan (information available upon request), Amsterdam or Nice cases (specifically regarding condominium issues) are sufficiently illustrative and should lead local authorities to consider their policies with the necessary nuance. A message to the political actors of the next Government of the Brussels-Capital Region!
In conclusion, the article in L’Echo summarizes the equation to be solved well at the end: “how can we promote the economic growth of a tourist city without compromising the concerns of local residents?” And this equation must be solved by the academic world, provided the problem is properly framed in its entirety, also taking into account the adequacy of tourism supply and demand, both qualitatively and quantitatively. It is indeed a balance to be found, and to date there is simply no study that considers a systemic analysis free from demagogic political and lobbying interests. As a reminder, STR-Belgium has laid the foundations for such an impact analysis to preserve the public interest.
If the Government already has interesting pieces of the puzzle — whose relevant recommendations it has ignored until now:
The recent OECD study, whose summary in Le Soir is clear regarding housing: “The report does not overlook the strategic efforts implemented over the past two decades to improve the situation, notably ‘incentives for the private sector to build more affordable housing.’ However, it highlights numerous obstacles such as still-insufficient financing and the complexity of obtaining urban planning permits. Its recommendations to curb the crisis rely on a mantra: increase the supply of affordable housing where it is needed. Through a revision and streamlining of permit policies, precisely. Or by supporting production through a relaxation of planning and urban rules, as well as extending tax benefits granted to public actors to motivated investors and developers. Finally, the OECD suggests offering municipalities more flexibility to build — for example, more and higher — in exchange for more social housing, implementing rent price regulation, and a more homogeneous distribution of public housing supply across the Region.” And therefore yes, the OECD did not take the short-term rental sector as a scapegoat…
The study by the Brussels Institute for Statistics and Analysis (IBSA), which clearly states: “The ‘Airbnb effect’ is far from uniform across the regional territory, as shown by the map drawn from Périlleux (2023) data, based on AirDNA data from 2019, from which it was estimated that 2,450 dwellings were withdrawn from the traditional housing market in Brussels.” But why then do the current and future ordinances not differentiate between the neighbourhoods of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region?!
The study by Professor Verhaeghe, referenced in the Le Soir article of November 22: “While he advocates strict regulation for professional companies [editor’s note: which remains more lenient than the disguised ban currently in place], Pieter-Paul Verhaeghe also recalls that small ‘actors’ rely on this additional income source to live. Other suggestions made by the sociologist include establishing progressive tourist taxes and achieving a better distribution of supply across the region. ‘There are too many listings in the city centre. But we can have more supply in other municipalities where there are very few tourist accommodations of this type and where it could benefit the horeca sector — for example on the other side of the canal, which also acts as a boundary for Airbnb.’ ‘… we recommend targeted measures that maintain the market’s positive aspects, such as the additional income it generates for local residents, the stimulation it offers to Brussels’ economy, and the potential positive effects it can bring to neighbourhoods with fewer traditional hospitality businesses …’”
The first task of the next Brussels Government regarding tourist accommodations therefore seems obvious: to commission a systemic study to the academic world, whose results could be used first in Brussels, but also generically by cities around the world. As the Capital of Europe, it is more than time to lead by example and evolve toward a competitive, innovative and sustainable tourism market while preserving the public interest!
