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I am looking for a heat map of the zoning laws across the world. Red = very strict, Orange = fairly strict, Yellow = neutral, Green = lenient.
Hello! Thanks for your question about zoning laws across the world in the context of planning for future pop-up hotel locations. The short version is that after searching extensively through academic and government databases, industry websites and trusted sources, I’ve determined that the information you requested is not publicly available because zoning laws are almost entirely dependent upon individual countries and regions and cities within them. This has prevented me from being able to provide a list of regions that have lenient or neutral zoning laws, or that allow for 3-6 month leases. However, I was able to identify regions with the strongest legal structures and building codes, which should provide insight into the favorability of going into various global regions. Below you will find a deep dive of my research and methodology.
METHODOLOGY AND FINDINGS
I conducted an exhaustive research into this issue, beginning with looking information provided by the United Nations and World Bank, and the U.S. government to name a few. When these organizations did not have relevant information, I tried to locate information on a more regional basis, however, the result was the same. Zoning laws are publicly available; however, the only way to evaluate them is to conduct a search by individual countries. Even those searches may not be conclusive, however, because many countries segment their laws by region and cities within those regions. In addition, the extent to which zoning laws even exist is, to a considerable extent, dependent upon the level of development of individual countries.
Notwithstanding the above issues, by approaching the issue from a somewhat different angle, I was nevertheless able to find some information that I believe may be of benefit to you. The modified approach that I used was based upon the assumption that the adoption of zoning laws, by their very nature, requires a certain level of governmental authority. The same is true for the enforcement of those laws. But zoning laws are not the only laws at issue. For example, even though there may be no zoning laws at all, there are still other relevant issues such as security. For the less developed countries, therefore, even though we should expect that there would be fewer impediments to putting up pop-up hotels, there would still be attendant issues such as security to consider.
THE ABILITY OF COUNTRIES TO CREATE AND ENFORCE CODES SUCH AS ZONING LAWS
With the above in mind, I looked at various issues in order to provide you with the ability to evaluate various global regions with an eye towards which ones would be most favorable to your project.
1. STRENGTH OF AUTHORITY
The first thing I did was to locate a map from 2009 that shows the realistic degree of governmental authority on a global scale. This map shows the relative strengths of the authority exercised by countries. Another way of looking at this map is that it shows those countries that have strong, centralized governmental systems. Therefore, we see that the United States is ranked as having a strong system, whereas countries such as Russia that have domestic turmoil are ranked lower.
2. LEGAL SYSTEMS
I also looked at the various legal systems that are used around the globe. This is important, because a country may have significant legal authority, but if the legal system is disadvantageous it will not be conducive to investment. The linked map shows those legal systems and from this it is readily apparent that the majority of regions apply what is known as a civil law system that applies well established Romano-Germanic laws that have been in existence for centuries. The United States, Canada and Australia use a common law system that is also based not upon laws that were originally codified, but rather, upon what has been thought of as tradition and precedent. In the final analysis, it can be readily seen that most countries utilize either civil or common law systems that, on the whole, should be favorable for initial consideration of development.
3. PROPERTY RIGHTS
Just because a country can exercise a significant level of authority and has a developed legal system does not necessarily mean that it will be favorable for investments such as starting pop-up hotels. After all, every legal system does not provide for things such as basic property rights. The following global map depicts the extent to which countries around the world provide for basic property rights - the strongest rights being in North America and the weakest being in certain African countries and Russia.
4. CLIMATE
The next issue that I considered was the climate existing around the world. I thought that this would be particularly important, because of the nature of pop-up hotels and the desire that you have to conduct these operations on an environmentally friendly basis. Climate-charts.com provides maps that show things such as temperature, rainfall and wind velocities on a global basis. Taking this a bit further, the following global map from 2016 provides an assessment of the environmental consciousness currently demonstrated by countries around the globe. Again, if the aim is to conduct an environmentally friendly enterprise, then logically those countries with environmentally friendly policies should be attractive.
5. EXISTING BUILDING CODES
In trying to get a handle on zoning laws across the globe, I considered that the practical effect of zoning laws would be the adoption of building codes that regulate the number and types of buildings that can be erected. As it turns out, the World Resources Institute has produced a global map that shows the extent to which countries have mandatory building codes. A review of the map shows that mandatory codes are mostly found in Europe, Russia and China, while the United States, Canada and Australia have both mixed and voluntary systems. Importantly, most of Africa and South America (excluding Brazil) do not have codes at all. Russia, it will be remembered, affords fewer property rights, and it would follow from this that it would be an unattractive location for building.
6. GREEN CITIES
While I could not find rankings of regions that are lenient with respect to pop-up hotels, or that allow 3-6 month leases, I did find a ranking of cities based upon how environmentally friendly those cities are in their building practices. This is obviously not on point; however, consideration of these locations would be relevant in circumstances in which the desire is to promote projects that are environmentally friendly. Stated otherwise, cities that have progressive views towards green energy/environmental policies should be expected to be more receptive to projects (such as pop-up hotels) that are environmentally friendly. What I found is that Paris and Singapore are currently considered to be the cities that have the most environmentally friendly policies vis-a-vis green buildings. London is also high on this list. This study looked at the overall landscape in each city, building energy efficiency, green building policies and the overall culture towards green construction.
POSSIBLE CONTINUED RESEARCH
In understanding what types of information are and are not publicly available on this topic, I suggest that research on zoning laws in individual countries would be in order. However, in countries such as the United States that have limited federal laws impacting zoning, this research will provide better results if it is concentrated upon local regions, i.e. cities.
CONCLUSION
To wrap it up, after searching extensively through global organization and government databases, as well as industry and other reliable sources, a direct answer to your question is not publicly available because zoning laws are too dependent upon local standards. However, I was able to isolate maps showing those countries that have the more well developed legal systems that provide for established property rights and have mandatory building codes.
If you’d like to continue research on any of the other topics I’ve outlined above, just let us know!