Global Regulatory Notes (15)
Know the latest on STRs across the Globe. Tiny Township, ON, and Australia review enforcement; Granadilla de Abona, Spain handles legal showdown; Valencia revisits enforcement; Scotland pushed for higher tax; Brussels, Belgium tightens rules; London; Wales; Malaysia. READ MORE.
Canada
Tiny Township, ON
In Tiny Township, frustration over short-term rental regulations is boiling over as some cottage owners blame the rules for falling property values and sluggish sales.
Longtime owner Susan Barbi says she and her husband have invested heavily to keep renting their beachfront cottage, only to face what she calls a “sea of red tape” this year—ranging from a $1,750 annual license fee and multiple inspections to a hard cap on the number of STRs allowed. Mayor David Evans defends the bylaw, saying it was built after public consultation to address noise, parking, and neighbourhood concerns, and stresses that the licensing program is entirely self-funded with no impact on property taxes.
Australia
A new YouGov survey commissioned by Airbnb finds that imposing strict short-term rental limits like night caps would have little impact on Australia’s long-term rental market.
Only 12% of hosts said they would convert their property to a long-term rental if night caps were introduced or reduced, with most citing their homes’ unsuitability—often because they are primary residences, holiday homes, or otherwise unavailable year-round. Two-thirds of those unwilling to switch said their property simply couldn’t accommodate long-term tenants, while others pointed to financial impracticalities or loss of control. The survey also shows levies on short-term rentals are ineffective, with just 5% of hosts saying they would switch to long-term rentals in response, while over 60% would keep renting short-term to help cover living costs and meet ongoing demand for family-friendly lodging.
Victoria
Holiday homes in Australia can be exempt from the vacant residential land tax if the owner or close relatives use the property for at least four weeks each calendar year, with stays allowed to be non-consecutive.
Eligible relatives include partners, children and their partners, siblings and their families, parents, grandparents, and grandchildren, provided their stays are not simultaneous. Owners should keep a usage diary as evidence, and the exemption applies to individuals, joint owners, and, from 1 January 2025, companies and trusts that owned the property on 28 November 2023.
The State Revenue Office will assess whether the property is a genuine holiday home based on location, usage patterns, and ownership conditions, including that certain owners or beneficiaries must have a principal place of residence in Australia.
Spain
Granadilla de Abona
Granadilla de Abona’s plan to rein in short-term rentals is heading toward a legal showdown after ASCAV, the Canary Islands’ vacation rental association, declared the new ordinance unlawful.
The measure, passed unanimously in October 2024mrestricts tourist rentals in several categories of housing: those out of compliance with planning rules, protected or subsidised housing, and properties in officially designated “housing/tourism stress” areas. Only homes with original licences, permits, and full land-use compliance can operate as holiday lets. ASCAV argues the rules violate constitutional property and business rights, ignore proportionality requirements, and contradict Supreme Court precedent.
Valencia
The Valencian Community says its crackdown on unregistered tourist rentals is delivering results, with over 13,000 listings removed from the official registry in the past year and another 7,000 slated for deletion by late 2025.
The 2024 law, which requires each property to have a cadastral reference and tax ID, also sparked a wave of new registrations—8,579 in the past year, nearly twice the previous period—bringing the total to 94,259. Between January and July 2025, Alicante added 3,391 homes, Valencia 1,506, and Castellon 791. Inspections rose by a third over the past year, while new rules now let municipalities carry out enforcement and keep any fines, with Valencia collecting more than €30,000 in its first three months of using the power.
Scotland
The Scottish Greens are pushing for higher taxes on second homes in designated Gaelic-speaking areas, aiming to protect the language by easing housing pressures on local residents.
The Scottish Government
Finance spokesperson Ross Greer plans to amend current legislation to allow a surcharge on holiday home purchases in these “special language areas,” arguing that short-term lets and second homes have priced young Gaelic speakers out of their communities. The proposal builds on the existing 100% council tax premium on second homes, which reduced such properties by 2,500 last year.
Belgium
Brussels
Brussels is tightening its grip on short-term rentals, with regional tax authorities identifying around 1,800 Airbnb properties that have failed to meet tax obligations.
Finance Minister Sven Gatz said inspections revealed widespread non-registration and undeclared rental income, prompting the region to cross-check Airbnb’s data against its own records. The crackdown builds on EU Court of Justice-backed rules that force platforms to share fiscal and occupancy data, comply with urban planning and fire safety rules, and require hosts to pass criminal record checks.
Non-compliant owners now face €1,000 fines per property plus back payments on a €3 nightly city tax, with authorities reclaiming €1.5–€2 million for 2022 alone. While Airbnb says it continues to remind hosts to follow the law, some operators claim the rules are unclear and the penalties excessive.
United Kingdom
London
The City of London will receive $1.08 million over three years from the federal government to strengthen enforcement of its short-term rental by-law, which regulates properties listed on platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo.
The investment will fund additional enforcement officers, more inspections, and expanded outreach to ensure hosts meet licensing requirements. Since October 2022, London has required that short-term rentals be the operator’s primary residence, be licensed, and be available for a maximum of 29 consecutive days at a time.
Wales
Holiday let owners in North Wales are facing steep backdated council tax bills after failing to meet the Welsh government’s new occupancy threshold of 182 days per year, which applies retrospectively.
Properties that don’t meet the target lose their business rates status and become liable for council tax, often with second home premiums of up to 300%. Critics, including North Wales MS Sam Rowlands, say the policy is punishing small operators, with survey data showing nearly half of owners now paying premiums and losing money.
Malaysia
Malaysia is set to tighten control over short-term rental accommodation (STRA) by requiring operators to first obtain a business licence from their local authority before registering as tourist premises.
Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing confirmed the measure, agreed with the Housing and Local Government Ministry, as part of broader efforts to align STRA oversight with the Tourism Industry Act 1992 and improve enforcement ahead of Visit Malaysia Year 2026.
Amendments to Act 482—based on 54 stakeholder engagement sessions—are expected to be tabled in Parliament by late 2025 or early 2026, introducing new licensing processes, insurance requirements, platform registration, stronger enforcement, and a Tourism Tribunal.
🌐 Emerging Global Trends
Global short-term rental regulation is shifting toward a more assertive and targeted approach, with jurisdictions cracking down on illegal listings, introducing specialized protections for vulnerable communities, and ramping up licensing requirements. These targeted approaches suggest a shift from blanket regulations toward location-specific measures aimed at balancing tourism benefits with local needs.
🏠 Rising Pushback from Property Owners Over STR Rules: From Ontario to Wales, short-term rental owners are voicing growing frustration over stricter licensing fees, occupancy thresholds, and regulatory caps, with some claiming the measures are hurting property values and making operations financially unviable. Governments argue these rules are necessary to curb community impacts and housing pressures, but the standoff signals a widening divide between policymakers and small-scale operators.
🏦 Governments Intensify Data-Driven Crackdowns: Cities like Brussels and Valencia are stepping up enforcement by cross-checking platform data, increasing inspections, and tying registration to tax compliance, leading to thousands of listings being removed or fined. Leveraging legal mandates for data-sharing, authorities are combining urban planning rules with fiscal oversight to target unregistered or non-compliant hosts at scale.
📍 Targeted Policies Emerge to Protect Local Communities: Across regions such as Scotland’s Gaelic-speaking areas, Australia’s holiday-home tax exemptions, and Malaysia’s planned STRA licensing overhaul, policymakers are tailoring short-term rental rules to address specific cultural, housing, and tourism priorities. These targeted approaches suggest a shift from blanket regulations toward location-specific measures aimed at balancing tourism benefits with local needs.
Stay Updated with STRisker
STRisker offers tools and features to keep you updated with the Short-Term Rental movement across the U.S.
STRisker Document Analysis
Finding the right compliance documents shouldn’t feel like searching for a needle in a haystack - STRisker’s Documents Analysis is built to simplify your life, offering instant access to hundreds of thousands of documents from thousands of cities across the US.
👍 We’d love your feedback.
Which stories hit? Which ones missed?
We're constantly refining Global Regulatory Notes to make it even more useful for you.
✉️ Just reply directly to this email. We read and respond to every message!
-Will McClure
🙋 P.S.
Know someone else who should be reading Global Regulatory Notes? Feel free to forward this along. We'd love to keep them in the loop on the latest short-term rental trends and regulatory updates from around the world.