According to the Ministry of the Environment, work on a building law on Airbnb is due to start next spring.
How would you like to earn a couple of thousand euros a night if you let tourists use your house?
Rovaniemi currently has a number of luxury detached houses available on airbnb, a popular site for tourists. A night in a detached house costs around €1000 – €3000 per night, depending on the property. This means that during the hottest season, for example, a single-family home owner in Rovaniemi can earn up to €20 000 per week at best.
Lapland has the most airbnb properties in Finland
Airbnb accommodation is most abundant in Lapland, Rovaniemi and the fjord resorts, relative to the population. In Rovaniemi, there are currently around 1,000 Airbnb properties available. The majority of these are apartment buildings.
About a third of the properties are private homes or cabins. The most expensive large properties are located either on the river bank or near the city center.
In addition to being close to the river and the city, the Aula destination also offers other luxuries. Tourists can use, among other things, their own swimming pool.
Difficult to make general guidelines
Building control’s attitude towards accommodation in small house areas is contradictory. For example, in Helsinki, Oulu and Tampere, the city has defined guidelines for airbnb rentals. Rovaniemi does not have such general instructions.
It is difficult to draw the line between when it is about renting a residential apartment and when it is accommodation.
– When the legislation does not recognize these phenomena, then we basic engineers at the municipal level are faced with an impossible task.
It is above all about the interpretation of the Land Use and Construction Act. The main problem is when short-term rental is considered an accommodation activity that requires a building permit and a change of use, and when it is considered an ordinary residential apartment rental.
The law cannot be used to prohibit
In the case, a private person had asked the building control to intervene in the Airbnb activity carried out on two plots bordering his residential property in order to stop it.
According to the KHO’s decision, the repeated renting of furnished apartments with short-term contracts was in the nature of accommodation activities, which could not be considered typical for the residential area. The activity also did not correspond to the usual small house living.
In Lehtoniemi’s opinion, based on KHO’s decisions, general rules cannot be made for when living becomes accommodation. The boundary of licensed accommodation is still very unclear.
– There are still many grievances and ambiguities. We cannot prohibit something that cannot be directly prohibited by law.
The city would like legal guidelines
National guidelines for short-term rentals would be desirable. Two years ago, the Rovaniemi city government made a proposal to the Ministry of the Environment. The city government requested a report from the ministry that would have assessed the need for changes in the legislation related to short-term rentals.
\”Unfortunately, no response to that proposal has been received to date,\” says Lehtoniemi.
The matter is supposed to start to be resolved next spring, when the new construction law comes up for consideration by the parliament. At the same time, it is also possible to change the regulation that would concern accommodation facilities.
The ministry still has no idea what the regulation would contain.
– We don’t have a ready list for this yet. Then, in time, it will be considered and discussed what kind of changes are needed.
According to Martinkaupi, a lot also depends on, for example, the new government program, in which direction the law and regulation want to be taken in general. It is also not only about matters under the Construction Act.
– It must be taken into account that airbnb operations, for example, are not purely about construction, but also about running a business.
Few people have a formal licence
If you want to use your house for lodging instead of living, you can also obtain an official permit for it already within the framework of current legislation.
Rovaniemeläinen Aula obtained an official change of purpose for its own accommodation eight years ago. Part of his detached house is designated as a business apartment.
Although tourist accommodation is popular in Rovaniemi, obtaining official permits is not. The lobby is a rare exception.
An expensive daily rate is no guarantee of safety
Registration as a commercial apartment means that the building has had to undergo, for example, official fire safety inspections.
– The water in the swimming pool in the apartment is just as closely monitored as the water in the city’s swimming pool, says Aula.
Similar inspections do not need to be done for houses registered as ordinary detached houses, even if they are used as temporary tourist accommodation.
Aula herself understands very well the friction of tourism entrepreneurs towards home-grown airbnb hosts.
– It’s not fair if someone else takes 2,000 euros a night without all the responsibilities that tourism entrepreneurs have in their own destinations.
– For professionals in the tourism industry, taking care of the customer’s safety, especially at times like this, is particularly important.
In family or airbnb accommodation, things are not necessarily given the same attention.
– I personally understand well the concern of travel companies. With bad luck, Rovaniemi’s long and diligently built reputation can easily be shattered by external actors.
*You can discuss the topic* *with Yle ID* *21.12. until 11 pm*