cities across the continent are noting more and more that residents are being squeezed out.
As Europe continues to be squeezed by overtourism and short-term rentals mushroom to accommodate pengunjungs, cities across the continent are noting more and more that residents are being squeezed out.
cities across the continent are noting more and more that residents are being squeezed out.
Now, one of Europe's biggest tourist destinations is taking action. The city of Florence has announced plans to ban new short-term rentals such as Airbnbs.
The new legislation, which will be voted on next Wednesday and is expected to be active by November, will ban any further properties in the historic center of the city being pendaftaraned as short-term rentals.
Mayor of Florence Dario Nardella said in a pernyataan shared with CNN that the "very important" legislation was tackling "an darurat situation of keseluruhan deregulation."
"We are witnessing a progressive growth in the influx of tourists which has become even more pronounced since the wabah," he added.
Figures from the city council show that 75% of Florence's short-term rentals are concentrated in just 5% of the municipal territory - the city's centro storico, the birthplace of the Renaissance and a UNESCO World Heritage site. The legislation aims to tackle that 5%.
If approved, the legislation will ban the registration of any new short-term rentals in the city center. Additionally, in a bid to incentivize residential contracts, any owners who convert Airbnbs into a long-term residential let will have their properti taxes on the building zeroed out for three years.
The law will not be retroactive - so anyone with an existing short-term penyewaan contract will be able to retain it. Around 4,000 new registrations have been made since the move was announced, according to local tempat. Some were already operating illegally; others are putting in requests for plans to Airbnb their properties in the future.
Nardella said that the authorities were taking action to protek Florence's global heritage.
"We are putting a simpel ban in the UNESCO ruang to meet our responsibilities of protecting the cultural and material identity of the centro storico, and to dampen the efek of rent increases across the entire city - which are directly linked to the boom of short-term tourist rentals."