2024-04-23 12:10:30
BOLZANO. And’higher IMI rate it’s a higher employment rate. These are the requests of the Municipality of Bolzano, which has decided to crack down on room rentals which – being able to benefit from a series of concessions – are taking housing away from the traditional rental market in favor of short rentals for tourists. A formula increasingly appreciated by property owners, because it guarantees safe collections and practically zero problems with tenants.
The other day the mayor Renzo Caramaschitogether with Sonja Pichlerdirector of the Tax Office, met the president of the Consortium of Municipalities Andreas Schatzer. «I have presented – explains the mayor – our proposal, but it will not be easy to get it approved by the Consortium representing all the Municipalities. The objective is to arrive at a unitary proposal to send to the Province so that they can modify the provincial law.”
The rate is too low
«As a municipality – explains the mayor – we have applied the highest Imi rate provided for by provincial legislation to guest houses, which is equal to 0,56. Nonetheless, we consider it too low, because the rate set for normal rents – regardless of the type of rental and whether the tenant has residence here or not – is equal to 0,9; except for student rentals, set at 0,7».
The Municipality, first of all, therefore asks to be able to raise the rate for room rentals. The second request concerns the occupancy rate of rooms or apartments managed by landlords. «The provincial law establishes that, to have the IMI relief, there must be a minimum level of employment/days during the year. In the 2023 as city council we opted for the 40% which was the maximum limit established by law”.
Then, last autumn, on the eve of the elections, the provincial government decided that it is sufficient for rooms/apartments to be occupied only by 15-25% days/year. «Even in this case, having to implement the provincial legislation, we chose the employment rate of 25%, but it’s too little. Because it is enough that rooms and apartments are rented for a couple of months a year and the owner is entitled to a “discount” on the Imi rate. We ask to be able to introduce the minimum employment rate of 40%, as it was before the modification”.
Stop guest houses
In recent days the municipal council approved the regulation on beds in Bolzano presented by the councillor Johanna Ramoser. There are in the capital 5.998 beds, of which 4.163 in hotel facilities, 1.529 at guest houses (800 more in the last ones 4 years), 306 in farmhouses.
Based on what has been established by the Province, the capital will be able to grow in the coming years by 229 beds. The regulation establishes how they can be distributed: 209 in hotel facilities; 20 furthermore they are intended for farmhouses and zero for room rentals.
The reason for stopping the last category is clear: to prevent available accommodation from being allocated to short-term rentals in a city where it is already very difficult to rent a house at affordable prices.
The advantages for farms
The councilor Stefano Fattor, in the last meeting of the Consortium, contested the concessions granted in particular to city farmers who often offer the possibility of doing agritourism on the farms. «Not only do they enjoy – explains Fattor – the reduced IMI, but also the exemption from the “ceiling on beds” (introduced to limit overtourism).
Ad hoc rules for the category which have been added to the urban planning ones. Over time the buildings in the agricultural greenery have in fact been able to grow larger 900 cubic meters (300 square metres) which cost those who benefited from it only the construction price (4-500.000 EUR). They have been filled with rooms and accommodation for short holidays which benefit from the concessions granted to guest houses.”
According to the councilor, farmers should be supported because they are valuable but «It is not fair to equate the farmer who works on the farm to 1500 meters with the one who found it as an inheritance in the green wedge (often with a swimming pool) with monstrous position incomes (while for the “normal” people of Bolzano the houses are inaccessible). Hence the request to differentiate between mountain and city farmers.
2024-04-23 12:10:30