The reform, approved by the local Congress, establishes that owners who exceed this limit will have to wait a year to offer the accommodation again.
The plenary session of the Congress of Mexico City approved the ruling on the initiative to regulate the service of temporary housing rental platforms, such as Airbnb and Booking.com, promoted by the current head of government, Martí Batres Guadarrama.
This reform establishes that the maximum occupancy for accommodation units registered in the applications will be 50% per year, that is, only six months, which seeks to regulate the vacation rental market and balance competition with the traditional hotel sector.
Owners who exceed this limit will have to wait a year to offer the accommodation again.
The approved ruling modifies the Mexico City Tourism Law, the Mexico City Housing Law and the Law for the Comprehensive Reconstruction of Mexico City.
César Emilio Guijosa Hernández, a Morena deputy and member of the Joint Housing and Tourism Committees of Congress, said that the accelerated growth of temporary digital tourism through platforms has altered the functioning of accommodation in the Mexican capital, which has had an impact on gentrification and rising housing prices.
“This legislative instrument proposes a comprehensive solution to mitigate gentrification, mainly through the regulation of digital tourism, establishing limits on the number of nights that a property can use for this purpose,” the legislator commented.
With the reform to the Housing Law and the Law for the Comprehensive Reconstruction of Mexico City, it is prohibited to register and offer social housing through Airbnb or other digital services, as well as housing rebuilt due to the earthquake of September 19, 2017.
Against the opinion
The resolution was approved by the local Congress with 49 votes in favor, six against and nine abstentions. Deputy Diego Orlando Garrido López, from the National Action Party (PAN), considered that the reform to regulate the rental of housing on Airbnb goes against private property and the individual freedom of people, and maintained that it should not be the State that determines how to use real estate.
In the same vein, Congresswoman Laura Alejandra Álvarez Soto (PAN) pointed out that the proposal does not address how compliance with the law will be verified. She also added that establishing quotas will produce a black market in which square meters of housing can be rented without being reported to the platforms.
Representative Olivia Garza de los Santos (PAN) stressed that the initiative does not seek to promote housing or combat gentrification, but rather aims to put a cap on Airbnb accommodations in Mexico City and favor the hotel sector, which affects those seeking to earn extra income.
Morena supporters in favor
The local deputies of the Morena bench, Cecilia Vadillo Obregon (Morena), Victor Hugo Romo de Vivar Guerra (Morena), Fernando Zarate Salgado (Morena), Xochitl Bravo Espinosa (Morena) and Cesar Emilio Guijosa Hernandez (Morena) voted in favor of Marti Batres' initiative.
Vadillo Obregón stressed that the ruling aims to guarantee affordable housing rents for the population, specifically for those living in the municipalities of Benito Juárez, Miguel Hidalgo and Cuauhtémoc, which have been largely affected by competition between traditional rentals and the Airbnb platform.
Bravo Espinosa also mentioned that the government's next step should focus on creating more social housing for young people, women and priority groups.
