Rental Ban Changes the Florence Historic Center

Florence has announced a rental ban on new short-term rentals such as Airbnb’s in the Renaissance historic center. Were you aware? This crackdown is an attempt to make more homes available for locals.

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Rental Ban in Florence

As one of Italy’s most popular tourist destinations, Florence has seen its housing inventory completely depleted by short-term rentals. The term “short-term rental” is defined as renting for a period of less than 30 days.

Back In June, it was estimated over 70 percent of the 11,000 short-term rentals in Florence were listed as such, which directly led to a reduction of housing.

Over 40,000 Florentines who live in the city center were and are complaining about finding themselves, living in apartment-like hotels.

Other European Countries Rental Ban

As in other European countries, low salaries, property shortages, short-term holiday rentals, and high inflation have fueled the housing crisis in Italy. Unfortunately, students are the group being hit particularly hard. And it’s sad. Europe seems to have accommodated tourism rather than compensating for their own residents.

A quote from the Mayor of Florence, Dario Nardella, said in a statement to CNN that this “Very important legislation was tackling an emergency situation of total deregulation. We are witnessing a progressive growth in the influx of tourists which has become even more pronounced since the pandemic.”

It’s said that 75% of Florence’s short-term rentals are concentrated in just 5% of the city’s historic center. This new legislation is targeting this 5%.

Important to note that the new law will not be retroactive. Anyone with an existing short-term rental contract will be able to keep it. Some reports are indicating about 4,500 new registrations have been made since the new law was announced.

Most noteworthy… The new law also offers three years of tax breaks to landlords of existing short-term lets if they switch to ordinary leases.

Rental Ban Not Just in Florence

Florence, meanwhile, is not the first city to implement this type of new restriction. Rome has been considering this same move while other places like Paris, Berlin, Vienna, and New Orleans have proposed tightening their own legislations and regulations. In September, New York City already launched its crackdown on short-term rentals according to the New York Times. I’ve read because of this – some new problems have surfaced for the city. Not quite sure what that all entails – reports were pretty vague.

Back in Italy…

Some are urging the Italian government to qualify ‘holiday rentals’ as those being rented out for less than 30 days at one time and to impose a 90-day annual limit on how long short-term rentals can be rented out for tourism purposes. Owners would also be restricted from operating more than two-holiday rentals in the same city. If they choose to do this, they would need to register as a business and as a result, pay higher taxes.

Conclusion

How will this new ban affect you for your next trip? I guess only time will tell how the big picture is going to pan out. Meanwhile remember, this new legislation is only for new applications. Keep the places you’ve enjoyed previously handy.