New regulation about Hungarian Airbnb flats on the horizon?

They can become hybrid accommodation where a tenant lives for 8-9 months while during the tourism season they function as hostels.

According to Forbes, a new era could begin in the sector of Airbnb flats. That is because, based on media information, the government already decided to give the right of regulating the sector to the local governments. As a result, local authorities can even ban this form of real estate rental.

The government will shortly submit the relevant bill,

so the parliament will be able to decide about it during its autumn session. Before, rumour had it that the government would like to limit Airbnb accommodation rentals to only 120 days.

Based on the data of the AirDNA (the database of Airbnb), those 600 thousand tourists who came to Budapest and rented Airbnb flats added 2 million guest nights and 52 billion HUF (EUR 146.9 million) to the sector. And this data does not include accommodation booked with the help of other websites, for example, booking.com. Thus, Airbnb is important for Hungary, especially in times when tourism struggles with significant problems because of the coronavirus epidemic.

Ingatlan.com, a Hungarian real estate website, says that they can imagine the start of the age of

hybrid flats in Hungary

during which tenants live for 8-9 months in a flat functioning as an Airbnb accommodation during the rest of the year, the summer season. However, we will know whether this solution is viable only after the government makes the details of its new regulation public.

Because there are almost no tourists in Budapest, Airbnb houses flooded the apartment rental market and created a decrease in the average rental prices that were skyrocketing before in, for example, Budapest. Early July,

there were 4,799 rent-free flats in the Hungarian capital.

This is 39 pc more than in February and 62 pc more than last July. In districts 5, 6, and 7, the rise is 70 pc, and the only real explanation is the lack of Airbnb and the foreign tourists who paid for it before.

Based on a new regulation of the government, owners will not have to pay VAT after the flats they offer for rent in the new buildings of the rust belts of Budapest. That can also help to keep rental fees lower. Furthermore, since the house rental business will not be as profitable as before, there will be fewer investors which can