
Officials from the Deputy Ministry of Tourism have finished developing a special online platform on which property owners can receive a serial number to register on the AirBnB website.
In the very near future, the Deputy Ministry of Tourism will announce the launch date for the new application.
The platform is ready, it is being tested for correct operation, and it is expected that the start date of its operation will be announced very soon, – said the official representative of the Deputy Ministry of Tourism Marios Tsianakas.
As you may know, in June 2020, the Deputy Ministry of Tourism of the Republic of Cyprus announced that from 2021, owners who rent out their property to tourists on the Airbnb service will be required to sign up in the national registry. Otherwise, they will not be able to post their ads on the popular platform.
In other words, when registering on Airbnb, property owners will soon be asked for the serial number assigned by the Government of the Republic of Cyprus in the national registry. Otherwise, the landlords will not be able to register on the web platform.
The serial number can be obtained on a special online platform developed by the Deputy Ministry of Tourism.
Until the moment of registration in the national register, homeowners were allowed to rent their property, if they paid taxes, VAT, and daily fees to local authorities.
According to the new rules, the owner of properties that are listed on Airbnb for the first time will need to obtain a serial number before registering on the platform. Owners of properties that are already in the Airbnb platform database will need to sign up by the end of 2022.
The implementation of the new rules will be monitored by the Deputy Ministry of Tourism of the Republic of Cyprus. It will have the right to conduct inspections of landlords in order to identify violations. This includes checking the national registry for registration and serial number, and adhering to Airbnb conditions for an entrepreneur to register a home.
Now there are more than 20 thousand properties on the island, which are rented through the online platform Airbnb.
According to KPMG’s Hospitality Report, in 2019, property owners rented out 23.1 thousand housing units for short-term rent in Cyprus, which is 27.7% more than in 2018. The number of bookings was 429.1 thousand.
We must add that by entering the national register, many tenants will be closely monitored by the authorities. If the annual income exceeds €15.6 thousand, they will have to pay taxes.
It is possible that not everyone will want to enter the register. And those who joined are likely to raise housing prices, as they will have to pay taxes.
Source: stockwatch.com.cy
Photos: pixabay.com