The Mexico Metropolis authorities has proposed new regulation for digital lodging platforms together with Airbnb to deal with considerations about gentrification and displacement of residents within the metropolis.
Martí Batres, Mexico Metropolis’s mayor (head of presidency), mentioned the proposal was based mostly on reforms to the native Tourism Regulation that may require Airbnb rental hosts to register in a database of non permanent lodging properties.
Beneath the brand new guidelines, every host can be required to tell neighbors about their intention to lease the property and report biannually on the occupation of the property to Mexico Metropolis’s Tourism Ministry (Sectur). With a view to stop mass shopping for up of residential properties for non permanent lodging, no host can be allowed to register greater than three homes, flats or rooms.
Whereas annual tax would stay at 3.5% for accommodations and 5% for digital lodging platforms, hosts working a most three rental properties must pay a further royalty fee, but to be outlined.
Batres mentioned that the regulation responds to considerations of residents in neighborhoods equivalent to Roma, Condesa and Juárez, the place Airbnb properties have proliferated quickly in recent times, contributing to housing shortages and rising lease and home costs.
“We’re very within the tranquility of the residents of the completely different neighborhoods; that the residents don’t really feel that there’s a scenario of displacement, gentrification, that they’re being expelled from their properties by new financial dynamics,” Batres mentioned.
He added on his X account that the regulation additionally seeks to deal with considerations about unequal competitors with the resort business and a scarcity of security ensures for vacationers who use digital lodging platforms. “The proposal was agreed upon with residents, hoteliers’ associations and digital platforms themselves,” Batres wrote.
Although metropolis residents have known as to manage Airbnb for a number of years, the primary senior official within the Mexico Metropolis authorities to lift the query was former head of presidency and present Morena presidential candidate Claudia Sheinbaum. Sheinbaum’s remarks got here in December 2022, two months after a deliberate partnership with Airbnb to advertise the capital to digital nomads triggered protests.
Whereas Sheinbaum mentioned on the time that town nonetheless aimed to draw extra vacationers, she acknowledged that sure areas have been disproportionately affected by short-term leases and may very well be vulnerable to turning into Airbnb-only neighborhoods with out authorities motion.
Because the begin of this yr, the variety of short-term leases in Mexico Metropolis has leapt by 17.5%, with the impartial information portal Inside Airbnb counting 16,590 whole properties for lease in Mexico Metropolis through the platform in October.
In July, Batres mentioned that regulation for Airbnb may very well be prepared inside six months, however additional info was wanted to evaluate its gentrifying impact. In keeping with Eduardo García Clark, Director of Digital Governance at Mexico Metropolis’s Digital Company for Public Innovation, the newly proposed registry will partly tackle this want, offering complete info on the scale of the sector and the way it evolves over time.
The proposal will now be despatched to the Mexico Metropolis Congress, and is hoped to be authorized throughout this yr’s legislative session earlier than it ends on Dec. 15.
With stories from Forbes and El Financiero
