Confindustria Alberghi: ‘It is right to provide local authorities with reliable tools’

A positive move, although the level of protection for private property must be maintained. Elisabetta Fabri, president of Confindustria Alberghi, welcomes the framework framework of the European regulation recently proposed by the Commission. “It addresses,” she explains, “a crucial issue that we have been calling for for some time: the need to regulate the phenomenon short-term lettings, providing local authorities with reliable tools to curb market distortions. We welcome the move to grant municipalities solid and clearly defined regulatory powers’.

In Italia, to date, “the resolutions and attempts at regulation promotedby various local authorities have faced a complex process, often hampered by regulatory uncertainties and legal disputes. ‘The introduction of a common framework and objective criteria for identifying areas under housing pressure,’ continues Fabri, ‘will finally enable mayors to take effective action through resolutions to curb speculation and safeguard the liveability of our cities.’

One question remains: the protection of private property. ‘Whilst, on the one hand, it is essential to combat the purely speculative use of short-term lettings, which takes properties out of the residential market, on the other hand, we must avoid disproportionate or punitive restrictions on property owners, just as we must ensure the simplification of management, avoiding the introduction of solutions that are unworkable due to their level of bureaucratic and administrative complexity’, says the president. So, yes, “to balanced management, transparency and the restoration of proper market dynamics in the accommodation sector; no to restrictions that unjustifiably undermine private property”.

Giorgio Spaziani Testa, president of Confedilizia, takes a different view: ‘The proposed regulation seeks to grant unspecified competent authorities in the various countries the power to ban the sale and purchase of property and to use it for short-term lettings. This makes no sense whatsoever, both for reasons of respect for the principle of subsidiarity and because of the blatant violation of contractual freedom and the right to property’. And Marco Celani, president of Aigab, the association of short-let operators, speaks of ideological interference: ‘The algorithms in Brussels have decided that Italian families can no longer even rely on a property they own – legitimately acquired and perhaps even legitimately inherited – if they have chosen to supplement their income by temporarily letting it to travellers.’