Emilia-Romagna: new rules for short-term rentals

Emilia-Romagna is preparing a maxi squeeze on short-term rentals. After the Tuscany, also the Region led by the governor Michele De Pascale is preparing to impose an extra burden of charges and planning constraints on this type of lettings, in addition to what is indicated by national regulations. With the clear objective of regulating and reducing the impact of the phenomenon, through a long series of obligations and sanctions.

The text has not yet been formally deposited; the regional councillors for Housing, Giovanni Paglia, and Tourism and Trade, Roberta Frisoni, are presenting the proposal to the stakeholders and corrections are not excluded. The timeframe, however, will be tight: the idea is to reach approval within the year. The drafts circulating in these hours already clearly indicate the road the Region intends to take. The text, in fact, aims to "ensure the orderly development of the territory, guaranteeing a balance between the protection of residency and the liveability of urban spaces and neighbourhoods and the promotion of the tourist offer".

A system that - it must be emphasised immediately - is already highly contested among operators in the sector and is not liked, for example, by Marco Celani, president of the Italian association of short-term rental managers (Aigab): "The number of online flats in the region is small, 0.7% of properties, half the national average, and does not justify an intervention of this kind. Giving these new powers to municipalities is an unnecessary limitation of the freedom of owners, at clear risk of being challenged for unconstitutionality. Above all, I am against the novelties on changes of intended use, because they will lead to a congestion of the market'.

Returning to the measures, a series of constraints will be triggered for all units intended for short-term rental from the entry into force of the law. First and foremost, they will have to change their intended use: thus, within the tourist-receptive functional category, it will be the specific intended use called short-term rental. After the change of use has taken place, these units will be subject to a number of limitations.

The other pillar of the manoeuvre being studied by the Region concerns, in fact, the planning of local administrations. "The text reads: 'Municipalities,' the text says, 'may identify in their urban planning instruments specific areas of the municipal territory in which the establishment of short-term rental use is permitted, excluded or favoured, or is subject to compliance with specific conditions. Hence, no longer free growth, but the possibility for mayors to set limitations, even very strong ones, by monitoring the urban planning destinations of the properties present on the territory.