Florence Florence bans new short-term rentals in historic centre

[Christian]

In the news this past week, we learned that the Florence administrators had decited to ban new short-terms rental in the historic city centre. Long story short: The city of Florence has banned new short-term rentals on platforms such as Airbnb in its historic centre, in an attempt to free up more homes for locals. Owners who turn existing short-term lets into ordinary leases will be exempt from their property taxes for three years.

While I'm not entirely surprised, I think that in the long run, this could mean more expensive Airbnbs if owners decide to convert their units into long-term rentals. Then again, it is such a lucrative industry, especially in a city like Florence, that it may not have much of an effect.

Any thoughts?

 

[Ian Sutton]

A difficult subject for sure.

IMO, on a small scale, apartment rentals are much less of an issue, indeed when tourists are choosing that option to better embed in the culture, I see this as better than hotels, not worse. The reasoning is that those tourists support real businesses, like food markets, alimentari, bakeries etc. With just a small proportion given over this way, there's still plenty of housing available for locals.

However when the scale ramps up, and this option is seen merely as a cheap alternative to hotels, yes it can cause problems, or increase existing problems that have developed over the years. I'll also add that there have been some awful behaviour in air b&bs, impacting the neighbours.

What's the answer? I suspect this (targeted action) is indeed the answer, either when the housing issues become acute, or when a community sees the trend and implements it before it gets critical.