EU plan wins support for tighter holiday rental rules in Bavaria

The EU Commission wants to give municipalities more power to restrict short-term rentals in areas with housing shortages, a proposal that has received broad support in Bavaria, BR reported.

In many cities, flats rented through Airbnb, Booking and Check24 can earn owners more than conventional long-term rentals. This removes homes from the local rental market and can push up rents, according to the report.

Oberstdorf in the Allgäu illustrates the pressure. The municipality has 10,000 residents and about 6,400 homes, according to the Bavarian State Office for Statistics. Almost half of those homes, around 2,700, are registered with the local tourism authority as holiday apartments.

Tourism is an important source of income for the municipality, but the shortage of housing is growing. Oberstdorf’s tourism authority told BR that converting large amounts of existing housing into holiday accommodation was problematic. A lack of affordable housing was widely recognised, it said, but was difficult to address.

EU proposal would allow local restrictions

Monika Schmid-Balzert, managing director of the Munich Tenants’ Association and the Bavarian branch of the German Tenants’ Association, said it was time for measures against platforms such as Airbnb. Short-term holiday rentals meant that ordinary housing was no longer available to the general rental market, she said.

Under the proposed EU rules, municipalities could designate areas with strained housing markets and legally restrict short-term rentals. This could apply, for example, where property prices were high compared with incomes in residential areas.

Any restriction would have to be proportionate and justified, said Dan Jørgensen, the Danish EU commissioner for energy and housing, when presenting the draft legislation. He said ordinary workers, including nurses, teachers and police officers, could often no longer afford to live where they worked.

The rules still require approval from the European Parliament and the EU member states.

Bavarian municipalities already imposing limits

Bavaria updated its law on the unauthorised conversion of housing earlier this year. Municipalities can introduce registration and, in some cases, permit requirements for homes offered through online rental platforms if the housing shortage cannot be addressed by other reasonable means within a reasonable period.

Municipalities can also set an annual limit of eight weeks for accommodation provided to visitors. Munich, Nuremberg, Regensburg, Würzburg and Garmisch-Partenkirchen have adopted their own rules on the conversion of housing.

In Munich, renting out an entire property requires a permit and is limited to eight weeks per year. Individual rooms can be rented for longer without a permit.

Oberstdorf and Regensburg support the planned EU rules. Regensburg’s city administration described them as an important step towards strengthening the scope for action available to cities and municipalities. It said local authorities should be able to regulate short-term rentals where they place additional pressure on the local housing market.

Regensburg is still establishing its mandatory registration system.