View of Prague from an apartment window
As reported by the portal Vinegret.cz, this is because many landlords do not pay either income tax or the mandatory fee for providing hotel services. The working group came to this conclusion by comparing the number of properties offered to tourists on Airbnb with the number of entrepreneurs registered as payers of the so-called resort fee.
"Very many property owners who rent out their housing to tourists on a daily basis are currently unaware of their obligations. Informing them is the first step we must take if we want to change the situation," said Jan Vulf, a city council member for tourism and head of the working group, to the Novinky portal.
According to him, the collected taxes could be used to combat the negative phenomena brought by the short-term rental business. Residents of central Prague districts suffer particularly. They daily face a "thoroughfare" in their buildings, noisy and drunk "guests."
Moreover, due to cheap mortgages and the profitability of this business, in recent years more and more Praguers have bought apartments with the aim of renting them out daily. Against the backdrop of a decline in new housing construction, this has led to a significant increase in long-term rental prices.
The working group proposed the following solutions to the city council:
• allow only the property where the owner lives to be rented out. That is, not the entire apartment, but only a part of it – a room, attic, etc. (such a norm is currently in effect in Berlin and Barcelona);
• allow apartments to be rented out for a limited number of days per year (following the example of Amsterdam or New York);
• limit the rental period (following the example of Amsterdam or Barcelona);
• allow apartments to be rented out only in specific districts;
• limit the number of guests based on the property's area (as in Amsterdam);
• require landlords to obtain a license for the activity (as in Barcelona and Santa Monica).
Which of these measures will be implemented, the city councilors will decide in the near future.