Review regulations prohibiting short-term apartment rentals

Currently, it is not unreasonable for business owners to rent out apartments for long term, but it is unreasonable for short term rentals (less than 30 days) to be banned - Illustrative photo

Regarding the issue on February 27, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee issued Decision 26 regulating the management and use of apartment buildings. Accordingly, the rental of apartments in apartment buildings must ensure the correct purpose of use for living, absolutely not using apartments for short-term accommodation purposes, by day or hour. The Department of Document Inspection and Management of Administrative Violations ( Ministry of Justice ) has sent a summary of problems and inadequacies related to the above regulations to the Ministry of Construction.

According to the Department of Document Inspection and Administrative Violations Management, current regulations state that prohibited acts include: using an apartment for purposes other than residential purposes; arbitrarily changing the function and purpose of using the common ownership and common use of the apartment building; changing or damaging the load-bearing structure; dividing or separating an apartment without permission from a competent state agency.

The implementing guidelines and Official Dispatch 4757 of the Ministry of Construction also determined that using apartments for purposes other than residential purposes is strictly prohibited.

Unreasonable regulations

However, in essence, the Ministry of Justice believes that: Airbnb accommodation rental services (a model that connects people who need to rent houses or rooms with people who have rooms for rent) are still the tenants using apartments for residential purposes. The law currently has no regulations defining how many days a short-term rental is or prohibiting owners from renting out their apartments.

In fact, currently, long-term apartment rental business owners are not prohibited, but short-term rental (less than 30 days) is prohibited, which is unreasonable. Therefore, banning apartment rental via Airbnb is unreasonable and not strictly guaranteed in terms of law.

Apartment owners who do not live there have the right to rent out, this is one of the property rights of the owner as stipulated in the Civil Code.

In fact, this model can affect other residents, but instead of completely banning it, appropriate management solutions should be applied. For example, homeowners must register their business, meet the conditions of ensuring security and order and fire prevention, and not affect the community in the apartment building.

In this summary, solutions are proposed to thoroughly resolve the above situation. Authorities need to have comprehensive measures such as issuing specific legal regulations in the management of apartment buildings regarding short-term accommodation business activities.

In case of continuing to ban short-term accommodation business activities in apartment projects, State management agencies can also consider deterrent sanctions for violations.

Amendments to the regulations in the coming time

Responding to the above content, the Department of Housing and Real Estate Market Management said that it will record, research, and review to report to competent authorities for amendment and supplementation in the coming time.

At the same time, the Department of Housing and Real Estate Market Management emphasized that the management and use of apartment buildings is carried out in accordance with the provisions of the 2023 Housing Law and documents guiding the implementation of this law.

The Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HoREA) has sent a written opinion to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee. HoREA believes that instead of banning, the city should consider this model as a conditional business and investment industry. Short-term accommodation business activities in apartment buildings need to be issued with legal regulations, business households must register their activities, pay taxes, comply with housing and service standards, etc.

HoREA statistics show that in the city, there are currently 24 apartment buildings and apartment complexes that are providing short-term rentals through the Airbnb platform with about 8,740 apartments. In addition, there are many other short-term rentals, either directly or through intermediaries.

Short-term rental activities bring in an average revenue of 15-60 million VND per month for homeowners and are a model that can contribute significantly to the city's budget.

In many countries around the world , short-term accommodation services are available, and hosts can rate customers, and if there are violations, they will not be able to use the service in the future.

Phan Trang

Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/ra-soat-quy-dinh-cam-cho-thue-can-ho-ngan-ngay-102250519134300771.htm