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AUTHORITIES in the City of Amsterdam, the Netherlands will ban travel rentals for tourism, including rentals using the AirBnB application, in three Old Town areas starting July 1.
In three other residential areas in Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, residential owners can rent out their residences if they already have a special permit. The permit is only valid for no more than 30 days per year. Not only that, one occupancy may only be filled by a maximum of four people.
Many parties complain that rental housing for tourists with Airbnb has disrupted people’s lives in a number of favorite tourist cities, from Edinburgh in Scotland to Barcelona in Spain.
According to Amsterdam’s housing advisor, Laurens Ivens, said in a written statement that about 75% of the city’s 780 residents and organizations agreed to the ban. City authorities say one in 15 homes in Amsterdam appears in the list of leases in cyberspace.
The Amsterdam city council has been quite vocal in voicing proposals to reduce tourist visits and reduce the disruption caused by tourists in the center of the old city.
The list of neighborhoods that are prohibited from being rented on Airbnb includes one of the most popular destinations in the Netherlands, the 500-year-old red district.
Other areas cover most of the inner city area, considering that the place is a world cultural site as determined by the United Nations Organization for Education, Science, and Culture (UNESCO). [antaranews]
