Rents expected to fall with new Airbnb regulation

ISTANBUL

New regulations on daily accommodation rentals for tourism purposes, a practice said to be negatively impacting the housing market, will enter into force on Jan. 1, 2024.

The "Regulation on Activities for Renting Houses for Tourism Purposes" is expected to increase the supply of houses available for regular rentals in the market and decrease rent prices.

The regulation limits short-term rentals to 100 days, and requires mandatory plaques with qualifications determined by the Culture and Tourism Ministry to be hung at the entrances of rented houses. The Ministry will be in charge of the supervision and authorization of the rentals and will also determine the fees for the permit and plaques.

Within the scope of the regulation, if the dwelling to be rented for tourism purposes is in an apartment, the unanimous approval of all floor owners in the same building will be required to be submitted to the Ministry in order to obtain a permit.

Accordingly, those who rent out houses for tourism purposes without a permit will be imposed an administrative fine of 100,000 Turkish Liras for each rented house and will be given 15 days to operate with a permit.

At the end of the 15-day period, an administrative fine of 500,000 liras will be imposed on those who continue their tourism rental activities without obtaining a permit, and another 15 days will be given to operate by obtaining a permit.

Upon the expiration of the second 15 days, an administrative fine of 1 million liras will be imposed on those who continue tourism rental activities without a permit.

Stating that the demand for the permit will be low, Nizameddin Aşa, President of the Istanbul Chamber of Real Estate Brokers said, "These houses will be advertised as regular rentals and return to the market. We think that this will also decrease rental house prices."

"Right now, the abundance of regular houses has slowly started increasing, it was mentioned in many statements before that around 50,000 houses will return to the market quickly, which is a good number," he added.