Berlin's
government legislates against Airbnb
Owners
can no longer rent whole properties to tourists, as officals blame
websites
including Airbnb, Wimdu and 9Flats for driving up rents
Agence France-Presse
in Berlin
Sunday 1 May 2016
23.47 BST
Berlin began
restricting private property rentals through Airbnb and similar
online platforms on Sunday, threatening hefty fines in an attempt to
keep housing affordable for local people.
Authorities in the
German capital fear the trend for people to let apartments to
tourists through sites such as Airbnb, Wimdu and 9Flats is cutting
into a limited property supply and driving up rents.
A new law –
Zweckentfremdungsverbot – has been described by Andreas Geisel,
Berlin’s head of urban development, as “a necessary and sensible
instrument against the housing shortage in Berlin … I am absolutely
determined to return such misappropriated apartments to the people of
Berlin and to newcomers”.
Rents in Berlin rose
56% between 2009 and 2014 but are low compared with other major
European cities at about €10 (£8) a square metre this year.
As Berlin has become
one of Europe’s top travel destinations, with 30.2m overnight stays
last year, the Airbnb trend has affected the local hotel industry.
According to research company GBI, the private online bookings
represent a “parallel market of an additional 6.1m” overnight
stays a year.
The law was passed
in 2014 but gave a two-year transition period that ended on Saturday,
when owners became limited to renting only rooms via such sites, not
entire flats or houses. Offenders can face fines of up to €100,000.
The city has
appealed to the “civic spirit” of residents, asking them to
anonymously report suspected misuse online.
Tim Boening, 41, who
rents out a loft in the trendy Kreuzberg district, said he was not
shocked by the law, given practices he had seen. He cited “the nice
couple with two small apartments who move in together to a bigger
place and keep the two apartments to rent them out on Airbnb … I
don’t think that’s good – it should be stopped.”
But a 48-year-old
woman who did not want to give her name expressed fury about the
change, having rented out four apartments near the city centre via
Airbnb. She claimed the city was making Berliners pay for its failed
housing policy while serving the needs of the hotel industry.
She was especially
angry about the request to inform on offenders, saying that “in
Germany, of all places, maybe we should reconsider this kind of
thing”.
Airbnb Germany said:
“Berliners want clear and simple rules for home sharing, so they
can continue to share their own homes with guests. We will continue
to encourage Berlin policymakers to listen to their citizens and to
follow the example of other big cities such as Paris, London,
Amsterdam or Hamburg and create new, clear rules for normal people
who are sharing their own homes.”
Wimdu has filed a
lawsuit, arguing the law breaches the constitution of Berlin. The
owners of 9Flats told the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: “We
face a law in Berlin that would drive us into bankruptcy.”
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