2023-07-22 22:00:00
Florence plans to drastically reduce apartments in the city center. Mayor: “Save the historic city centers” – Exceptions for small villages.
The historic Italian city of Florence wants to ban the use of apartments in the historic center for short-term rentals by platforms like Airbnb to create more housing for locals. Mayor Dario Nardella’s proposal, with the slogan “Save the historic city centers,” stipulates that new short-term leases should be blocked. Tax breaks for longer-term leases are to be introduced for this purpose.
A combination of low wages, too little real estate, a high number of vacation rentals for tourists and rising inflation has led to a housing shortage in Italy, hitting low-income earners and students the hardest. Recently, there have been student protests because of the high rents.
National identification codes for vacation rentals
The far-right Italian government around post-fascist Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is planning a draft law that would introduce a national identification code for vacation rental operators. The code, assigned by the Regions, must be displayed on the websites and at the entrance to the apartments. Anyone who cannot show this code must expect fines of up to 5,000 euros. The law is intended to introduce the figure of the “property manager”, who can also operate several holiday apartments. Apartments must be rented to tourists for a minimum of two nights.
Stricter rules once morest mass tourism and short-term rentals
The Italian government is examining further measures once morest mass tourism and wants to introduce stricter rules for short-term rentals everywhere. Minister of Tourism Daniela Santanchè lamented a “wild west” in vacation homes. “The few applicable rules are being disregarded,” criticized Santanchè. Exceptions to the new regulation are small villages where there is no accommodation and where short-term rental is the only solution. “For us, private property is sacred and if a family decides to rent a room, it is not right to prevent them from doing so. But the situation is different when you rent 20 apartments,” said the minister.
New rules to support hotels
With the new rules, the government wants to support hotels that are suffering from increasing competition from accommodation platforms such as Airbnb. Last year, holiday homes generated direct sales of eleven billion euros, including suppliers, it was 44 billion euros, according to the government. According to the mayor of Florence, the measures planned by the cabinet in Rome are insufficient to bring the problem of the excess number of holiday homes under control. The problem is also virulent in Austria: Vienna is planning to massively restrict short-term rentals of apartments on platforms such as Airbnb. The draft of the 2023 amendment to the building regulations stipulates that a property may be let for a maximum of 90 days a year for a short period of time.
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