In Russia they wanted to introduce registration of Russians for daily apartment rentals

The volume of the short-term rental market in Russia in 2023 amounted to 250 billion rubles, and in recent years it has been actively growing. Experts say that if this sector is not overly regulated by the state, it has every chance of doubling in size. After all, prices for rental housing are approximately 20–40% lower than in hotels. And our domestic tourism is developing at a rapid pace, and for some it is the option of renting housing from individuals that allows them to travel around the country. Whether this area needs to be regulated and, if so, how, experts discussed at a round table in Vedomosti.

The discussion turned out to be lively: representatives of business and online platforms for booking housing insisted that regulation of this segment should be “soft” so as not to scare away landlords and so that short-term rentals do not go into the shadows. And State Duma deputy Alexander Yakubovsky presented his arguments: not everything is so smooth in this area, there are many complaints, and the bill planned for adoption will restore order in it.

The advantages of short-term rental housing are obvious, as experts reminded. There are many places in our country where tourists go, but the hotel network there is not developed. Prices for rental housing for individuals are lower than hotel prices: according to experts, this is an average of 3.5 thousand rubles. per day, and therefore the same large families (and the state is now concerned about supporting them) cannot afford to rent several rooms while traveling, they cannot afford it. This service is actively used not only by tourists, but also by business travelers and, for example, those who come to a particular region for medical services. Those who need a kitchen, washing machine, greater privacy and mobility choose “short-term” housing.

Secondly, for many Russians, renting out an apartment is often the only source of income, and people should not be deprived of this way of earning money (in our “shock times,” as experts put it).

Thirdly, such a business is also beneficial to the economy of the constituent entity of the Russian Federation: citizens coming from other regions help develop related industries – they leave money in cafes and restaurants, at tourist sites, use transport, etc.

And finally, this is tax revenue to the budget (from those landlords who are officially registered), which in less than a year 2023 amounted to 4.4 billion rubles.

Deputy General Director of the Center for Strategic Research (CSR) fund Laura Nakoryakova said that now the volume of the short-term rental market is 230–250 billion rubles (over the past three years it has grown by 30%), and in the next three years its turnover should grow to 500 billion rubles. Experts have suggested that by 2026, 1% of the total population employed in the country’s economy will be renting out housing for a short period of time. For 34% of landlords, this is the only or main source of income. 90% rent one property, and this is a person’s own home. The hypothesis that a person often rents out many properties at once, and 10–15 people move into small apartments, was not confirmed by CSR statistics.

Experts noted the key role of online platforms for booking housing, thanks to which “order is ensured” and “confidence of the landlord and tenant that the transaction will go well.” So, now more than 55% of Russians book housing through such online services.

According to the CSR, the “whitewashing” of the sector is as follows: 32% of landlords pay taxes through registration of self-employment. 35% enter into contracts with tenants. “We believe that the market will be whitewashed, we see this trend, including in digital services, because search and booking become transparent, people are involved in the entire chain, and they are visible,” noted Laura Nakoryakova. And if the trend towards bringing this business out of the shadows continues, taxes could rise to 9–10 billion rubles (currently 4.4 billion).

At the same time, according to Artem Kromochkin, head of short-term rentals at Avito Real Estate, 74% of those renting housing through their service have the status of self-employed, individual entrepreneurs or legal entities. CIAN said that they have 62% of legal landlords.

Director for work with authorities and public organizations CIAN Maria Kelembet named the top places where tourists most often resort to such a service: these are Vladikavkaz (North Ossetia), the city of Kirovsk in the Murmansk region, where there is a ski resort and no hotels, Diveevo with the famous monastery in the Nizhny Novgorod region and the resort town of Zelenogradsk in the Kaliningrad region.

One of the main points that the state is concerned about in the area of ​​these relations is how much it interferes with the neighbors of the apartment building? How often does short-term rental housing lead to conflicts? Chairman of the Committee on Housing Policy and Real Estate Management, member of the Presidium of Opora Russia, Mikhail Ryzhenkov, said that they checked existing myths about problems with neighbors. “Having surveyed citizens about whether they had problems with noise, alcohol, parking, unforeseen situations due to the daily rental of apartments in their building, we saw that the majority (62%) had problems with neighbors, but there was no significant difference between there are no neighbors – homeowners and “short-term” neighbors,” he noted.

In turn, Artem Kromochkin said that a guest can read reviews of previous guests about a particular property on their portal in order to protect themselves. Kromochkin believes that the landlord is interested in the well-being of his neighbors and therefore also selects “good tenants.” Avito has both a rating of landlords and a rating of guests.

State Duma deputy, member of the Committee on Construction and Housing and Communal Services Alexander Yakubovsky, from the state side, recalled that the bill introduced in pursuance of the decision of the Constitutional Court (a story in the Pskov region, when a person rented out his apartment for short-term rental and they began to prohibit him from doing so, but he sued), was adopted in the first reading, and it just allows short-term rentals, since today they are generally prohibited. By the second reading, which will take place in the spring session of 2024, the bill will be finalized. Amendments will be accepted until February 1, 2024.

The government representative, in contrast to the experts present, suggested that short-term rentals were unlikely to be viewed favorably by housemates, and he had personally encountered many complaints from residents about this. “Most likely, we will decide that there should be mandatory registration at the place of stay and mandatory contracts, and this will give impetus to the development of the online service,” he emphasized. Registration is necessary for security measures, since “none of the bandits stay in hotels, everyone stays in rented apartments.” To do this, it is necessary to “go digital as much as possible”: the tenant entered his passport data in the application, and the landlord automatically received this data. There must be control.

In response to the words of State Duma representative Laura Nakoryakova, she warned that if the migration registration procedure is complicated, then in the first week “15% will fall out of this area of ​​the market,” then more and more, and so “our demand will collapse.” “For the consumer, this is a key barrier,” she said. Yakubovsky objected that “the market will regulate itself,” “people don’t really have a choice,” so “nothing will collapse.” And so that people are not afraid to hand over their passport data (which is precisely what representatives of this business fear), the deputy proposed linking registration through State Services. Business, in his words, “must play by the rules, and we are ready to establish these rules, so that without any tricks and deception…” He also warned business representatives: “Don’t be scared that you will go into the gray zone – the state doesn’t care about you will find! No one is going to regulate to the extent that this will happen.”