The municipality of Ixelles will send about 20 formal notices this week to the main property management companies operating within its jurisdiction, as part of its plan to regulate short-term tourist rentals such as Airbnbs.
The official letters are intended to ensure that the illegal rental of homes to tourists is stopped. Additionally, the municipality also wants the online advertisements for the homes in question to be taken down, Belga News Agency reports.
"We estimate that approximately 1,400 homes are rented out year-round via platforms such as Airbnb. That’s just as many fewer homes available for Ixelles families. In some cases, it has turned into a truly speculative practice," Romain De Reusme (PS), mayor of Ixelles, told Bruzz.
According to analyses conducted by the municipality, several hundred homes are currently being used intensively as tourist accommodations, even though they are actually intended as residences.
At the start of the month, Bruzz revealed that nine out of 10 homes listed on Airbnb across Brussels are not properly registered, mostly because they lack an urban planning certificate from the municipality.
That certificate grants owners permission to rent out a regular home to tourists, but municipalities rarely issue it to prevent too many homes from falling into the hands of Airbnb or other tourism operators.
Although many owners therefore do not have the proper certificate, many homes are still being rented out to tourists.
Taking homes off the market
Now, the municipality intends to address this by first targeting larger companies that play a key role in the rental of these homes. The first phase of the plan is step-by-step: identifying violations, issuing warnings, monitoring compliance, and then imposing sanctions for non-compliance.
"We are not targeting occasional rentals, but rather the abuses of a system that takes homes off the market. Our priority is that residents of Ixelles can find decent housing," stressed De Reusme.
Ixelles' city councillor for Urban Planning, Julie de Groote (Les Engagés), added that as Ixelles is "a central and attractive municipality, bustling with life", it is "no coincidence" that the supply of Airbnb listings is growing rapidly.
"However, this appeal must not come at the expense of housing affordability for Ixelles residents, nor of their quality of life," she said.
Additionally, the municipality intends to develop a more structured plan based on urban planning inspections, legal action, taxation of vacant properties, and cooperation with regional authorities.
The Urban Planning, Housing, Legal Affairs, and Taxation departments will be involved in this effort, in collaboration with the police. Ixelles is also asking the Brussels Government to create a stronger legal framework in which "these practices can be better regulated."
