Did tourism increase rents? Many requests from foreigners for daily apartments

2024-04-15 12:41:01Biznes SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

The prices of apartments for rent have registered a significant increase, especially during the last year. Referring to INSTAT's Consumer Price Index, August of last year marked an immediate increase in rents by 2.5% compared to July and there was a gradual level of growth until December 2023. Specifically, in the months of August, September and October, prices of rents increased by 3.9% compared to the same months of 2022.

The biggest increase is estimated to have been in December last year with 4.9%, a value which suffered a slight decrease of 0.5% in the first months of 2024. In the first quarter of this year, rents have increased by 4.4% compared to the values ??of the previous year. While in 2023, growth varied around 2.4% calculated with the quarter of 2022.

Looking at the trend of the past years, it is predicted that during the summer tourist season of 2024 rental prices will reach their peak. This is expected to happen due to the high number of tourists booking apartments on online platforms such as Airbnb.

As a result of the influx of foreign visitors, during the tourist seasons the demand for apartments for daily rent has increased and that for long-term rent has decreased.

Meanwhile, a new law brings important changes to the sector and, among other things, aims to provide a solution to the high informality, where there is a marked discrepancy between the number of tourists and the declarations made by the accommodation structures.

The creation of a new registry is expected, part of which will be simple private rooms, modern apartments, traditional houses, guesthouses and villas that will be used for tourism purposes.

Every entrepreneur who operates as an accommodation facility must be registered with the KKB and then request a categorization certificate from the Ministry of Tourism. On the other hand, heavier fines are foreseen for all abusive entities. Specifically, when hotel entities operate without a categorization certificate, the financial penalty with a fine ranges from 20,000 to 400,000 ALL.

Video