Many cities across the globe have banned AirBnB to avoid hollowed-out city centres and displaced local residents. COVID-19 has changed all that, with many cities seeing hundreds of short term rental properties lying unused. Fernando Medina, mayor of Lisbon in Portugal, has come up with an innovative suggestion for remedying both problems. This also helps the city become greener. By Jeremy Torr.
Lisbon, Portugal. July 2020. “Essential workers and their families have increasingly been forced out of (Lisbon’s city centre) as Airbnb and other platforms like it have seen rental costs spiral, communities hollowed out and the city’s “unique character” threatened,” wrote Fernando Medina, mayor of Lisbon in a recent opinion piece.
Fernando Medina, mayor of Lisbon: How to make cities greener without tourists during COVID-19
But Median has a solution that could both help fight the coronavirus plague – and indirectly benefit rental apartment owners left with a useless asset as tourists stay away from the usual popular destinations. He has suggested that the city government takes up leases from landlords and turns “thousands of short-term lets into ‘safe rent’ homes for key (health and civic service) workers” to help bring the city’s economy back to somewhere like it was pre-Covid. This is not just a pragmatic move that will help key staff live nearer to the areas they are needed – a little like many hotels offered rooms to medical staff in New York recently – but also brings the possibility of longer term change to the city centre.
“As mayor of Lisbon, I want to bring those who are our lifeblood back to the city centre as we make it greener,” Medina said. “For sure, Lisbon has benefitted enormously from the millions of tourists who have visited over previous year, but the city as a living organism has paid a social price, and no longer makes sense in the current pandemic climate,” he said. According to Medina, up to 35% of Lisbon's city centre properties are currently used as holiday rentals. At the moment, a huge proportion lie empty and unused.
Medina’s plan will take the empty, centrally situated apartments and prioritise it as affordable housing for hospital staff through a new accomodation programme. This will see medical staff, transport workers, teachers and thousands of others who provide essential services given the option to move back into the city – mostly to nearer their places of work. He also plans to use the re-livening of the city centre to springboard greening initiatives including adding cycle lanes, creating green areas and public spaces to give people more places to socialise and exercise.
Palcio Pena is just one of the sites that has attracted over 20 million short term visitors last year. Courtesy Portugal Tourism.
“We don’t want tourism or need visitors to return to Lisbon as quickly as possible,” he added. “It’s simply time we do things differently and visitors will also ultimately benefit.”
It’s a tricky move, as last year some 23 million international tourists visited Portugal and helped grow its economy by more than 8%, with a significant €34.5 billion boost to the economy.
Short term rental landlords can sign up to a special Renda Segura programme, and will be guaranteed a set monthly income for five years, paid by the city council. And as an incentive to keep going with the scheme, they will also be exempt from paying tax on the rental income. This has seen some 20% of landlords apply to be registered on the new initiative; not exactly a big uptake. The snag is the fixed rent may not be as high as the potential income from tourism occupancy – even though that has vaporised at the moment.
But Medina is pushing ahead with his innovative scheme. "This approach will also help tackle the climate crisis and improve public health,” he explained. “Denser (populated) cities mean fewer people commuting into the centre each day. Fewer vehicles on the road means less pollution and harmful emissions that poison the air we breathe.”
“As mayor, I am determined to create a better future from the tragedy of the coronavirus pandemic,” he added. Which seems a future that would benefit tourists just as much as emergency workers. Win-win? It could be Lisbon will be the first of many post-COVID innovators that help bring us a new normal. A healthier and more liveable one too.