Last week the authorities of Florence, Italy, announced a ban on new listings on both Airbnb and other related platforms in its historic center.
Rome, Venice and Milan are also discussing introducing restrictions. Italy's Ministry of Tourism has drafted a law to limit short-term vacation rentals across the country. The aim is to help popular tourist destinations, many of which are facing a housing crisis and over-tourism.
Paris impose restrictions on the maximum overnight stays in short term rentals
Property owners in Paris that are interested in renting their primary residence through Airbnb are considered to be filled in their local municipality. They then will be able to list their property in short term rentals for up to 120 days per annum.
If the rental is scheduled to exceed this duration owners are obliged to repurpose their property into a furnished lodging
Strict restrictions in other European cities
Berlin already had strict rules for renting out properties through Airbnb, with heavy fines. Airbnb hosts in the city must have a special permit to rent out an entire property on a short-term basis for up to 90 days a year.
In Monaco, short-term rentals are limited to eight weeks per year, after which a permit must be obtained.
In Stuttgart, hosts who rent out more than half of their property short-term are limited to 10 weeks a year without a permit.
In Amsterdam, hosts can only rent their properties for up to 30 nights per year. All of these require a short-term residence permit.
To combat rising rental prices, Portugal has stopped issuing new licenses to Airbnb for rental properties in cities and has restricted them to rural areas. All holiday leave will now be reviewed every five years. A new rental price control system is also being introduced.
Airbnb owners are also offered tax relief if they convert their properties into regular homes.
In 2021, Barcelona became the first European city to ban the short-term rental of private rooms. Hosts cannot rent a room for less than 31 days. It is still allowed to rent entire houses or apartments as tourist accommodation.
London imposes limitations in short term rentals
In London, Airbnb hosts can only rent their property for 90 nights or less per year without requiring a change of use.
In Scotland they must obtain permission to change the use of a property for short-term rentals
In Edinburgh, the city's 10-year development plan, announced in December, includes the right for the city council to completely reject short-term rentals in the future.
The situation in Greece
In Greece, the adoption, through a Joint Ministerial Decision (provided by Law 4446/2016), of the time limitation per day of short-term rentals is pending, while all the measures taken so far are mainly limited to tax limitations.
