In the last few years, renting apartments/houses by home owners for tourism purposes through platforms such as Airbnb / Booking / Expedia Group or Tripadvisor etc. has experienced an exponential growth supported by social networks.
Therefore, opportunity has suddenly opened up for any owner to turn its own home into a tourist facility, so that staying in a tourist accommodation has become more affordable compared to traditional types (hotels, motels, hostels, etc.). As in any situation, such has advantages, but also some disadvantages, for example: rising house prices, increased inconvenience for neighbors or an increase tourists number. Therefore, it is not surprising that in certain European cities and in other places in the world, a ban on renting apartments/houses for tourism and/or limiting tourists number is being discussed.
Bucharest, Brasov, Constanta and other tourist cities in Romania have not yet begun to feel the full effects of this type of short-term rental, although diverging opinions have already emerged.
Since 2022, Romania has also had a legal framework dedicated to rental for tourism purposes by individuals through the above-mentioned platforms, which had as declared purpose: “to reduce unfair competition, respectively the phenomenon of “black tourism”, and implicitly tax evasion”.
By the year 2022, Ministry of Business Entrepreneurship and Tourism estimated that there would be approximately 5,000 houses rented through these platforms, an estimate that is certainly no longer up to date, and was probably significantly underestimated if we deem, for example, only rented houses for tourist purposes at Black Sea coast during summer season.
Legal framework was amended in first part of 2024 and stipulates that issuance of classification certificate for natural persons for apartments and/or rooms for renting requires submission of documentation that must include, among others: documents evidencing construction’s legality, namely building permit or certificateand excerpt from land register, as well as owners’ association agreement and owners’ agreement with whom natural person has common walls horizontally and vertically.
Maximum number of apartments and/or rooms for rent for which a natural person may apply for classification is limited to 7 rooms (apartments and/or rooms for rent) regardless of where they are located.
According to Tax Code’s provisions, renting for tourism purposes means offering the possibility of accommodation for a period of minimum 24 hours and maximum 30 days in a calendar year to any person traveling for tourism purposes.
If number of 5 rooms is not exceeded during a tax year, income shall be determined on basis of annual income norm, and if such number is exceeded, the determination of net income in real system shall be used following tax year onwards.
Income norm is updated annually, and for 2024 it has an amount of Lei 13,500 / room for tourist resorts of national interest, except those on Black Sea coast, Lei 25,500 / room for localities in Danube Delta and Black Sea coast, respectively Lei 11,000 / room for other localities, such as Bucharest.
