Plans to change rules around Airbnb style accommodation for apartment owners have received mixed reactions.

Malta Tourism Authority CEO Carlo Micallef on Tuesday revealed proposals that would mean apartment owners would need to get the go-ahead from the majority in their block before being granted short term letting licenses.  

Sources close to the government told Times of Malta the new rules would also require landlords to seek fresh approval from the majority of their apartment block neighbours every three years.

It is understood the plans surfaced amid complaints of excessive noise, littering and frequent turnover of guests.

'Plan will hurt house prices'

Matthew Zammit, the founder and CEO of property management company 360 Estates, which manages “hundreds” of Airbnb short lets, said that while he agreed that changes were needed, “they have to be made with a feel for the public's needs and the investments, and certainly not like this.”

The move, he said, "will not go down well with the thousands of owners and property managers” in the industry.

He said that around 80 per cent of the owners his company represented were people who had invested in short lets to support their livelihood. They were not construction moguls and this measure would “tank sales and the value of certain properties.

“This will hurt not just the industry, but [house] prices as a whole,” he said.

'Important to find a balance'

Sliema mayor John Pillow said he was in favour of the measure, which he felt, would be broadly supported by residents.

“I do agree that owners should need to get permission from their neighbours – who for sure won’t agree,” he said, but added it was important that the regulations were applied evenly.

“The problem is not just with blocks of flats, but everywhere,” he said, noting that properties with their own street access – such as terraced houses, villas and maisonettes – would not be covered by the change of rules.

He asked whether those owning more units in a block of apartments would have more voting power than those with fewer properties should Airbnb opportunities be decided by majority vote and said it was “important to find a balance” between the different parties involved.

Moving the problem?

Fellow mayor Noel Muscat, who heads Swieqi local council, did not seem impressed by the measure, saying it was “not enough at all."

"It will not solve the garbage problem or address vandalism – it will only solve the problem in individual blocks,” he argued.

Stressing that the measure would simply “move the problem” elsewhere in localities, Muscat said the changes being mulled would likely see Airbnb rentals moved to high-concentration blocks of apartments catering to such lets.

“It’s already happening,” he said, pointing to several blocks in his locality that were being constructed for use entirely for short-let rentals. Residents in some apartment blocks were also receiving lucrative offers from developers looking to purchase their properties and develop the sites into apartment blocks for platforms like Airbnb.

Emphasising that short lets such as Airbnb properties were commercial activities, he said the MTA should never have granted [short-let] licences in priority residential areas - regions that were not supposed to include commercial activities.

Muscat instead argued for a cap on the number of tourists able to stay in localities – regardless of where they stayed – while advocating for refuse storage areas to alleviate the problem of rubbish on the streets. 

‘Unlicensed properties are the bigger problem’

Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) president Tony Zahra said that while the measure might address complaints from neighbours, he did not think it was where the government should be focusing its efforts.

“We [MHRA] don’t think it’s important where Airbnbs can be licensed, but that they have a licence in the first place,” he said.

The MHRA was not against short-let properties advertised on sites like Airbnb, he explained, but there were some 4,000 short-let apartments that were unlicensed for such activities.  

“We are not against competition; we just want a level playing field,” he said, - adding the association estimated licensing and compliance costs for Airbnbs could be as high as 35% and giving those unlicensed properties and unfair advantage.

Pointing to rules ushered in by the European Commission in 2022 giving public authorities access to data on short-term rentals, Zahra said if the government wanted to crack down on unlicensed rentals, it could.

“We are asking the government to please, do what you are there to do,” he said.

Public reaction

Online reactions to the MTA's plans also proved mixed, with numerous Facebook users commenting “well done” and “about time” under a post linking to the Times of Malta article revealing the plans.

One Facebook user slammed short lets as a "disgrace to the renting industry,” while another described it as a “good move”.

Not all were so accommodating, however, with one Facebook user calling the plans “very short-sighted" and another finding it “ridiculous I cannot rent my own property as I wish,” describing the move as “discrimination”.

Another Facebook user questioned whether the move should also apply to long-let properties, while another called for stronger enforcement of existing rules – which he said would preclude the need for such measures.