We are facing an unavoidable phenomenon that affects cities throughout Europe: a housing crisis and the rise of tourist rentals facilitated by online platforms. Although beneficial in certain aspects, this phenomenon has posed great challenges for high-demand cities such as Paris, Amsterdam, Barcelona or Florence, where I participated this week in a seminar on the margins of the G7 on Tourism and Housing.
In these cities, access to affordable housing is, today, a nightmare for many citizens, affecting not only low-income families, but also the working middle class and the youngest. We are at a critical point, and we need to determine how large tourist rental platforms should operate in our cities to support more balanced development and ensure affordable housing opportunities for citizens.
Cities are experiencing a housing shortage as many apartments are increasingly designated for short-term stays rather than long-term residential tenancies. This trend increases the price of rents for citizens, reduces the availability of affordable housing and can displace local residents, especially in popular urban centers and neighborhoods with iconic locations where demand is very high. For example, in the last decade, rental prices in Barcelona have increased by 68%.
In the last legislature, we at the EU approved common regulations for short-term rentals, with the aim of addressing issues of transparency, accountability and data sharing between local authorities and online platforms.
What more can we do at European level to ensure that short-term rentals contribute positively to our cities without compromising our communities? First, it is essential to implement the regulation approved by the EU quickly and effectively.
But we must go further. The EU should help local and regional authorities to actively work with the platforms to develop customized solutions that align with the needs of each city. Regular dialogue between municipal governments and rental platforms has shown that it can help foster understanding and cooperation, potentially mitigating conflicts, sharing best practices to learn together and ensuring that local concerns are reflected in the common legislative framework.
And thirdly, we need to take a deeper look at the legal framework regulating tourist rentals (housing, services, tourism) and provide EU legislation that can help local and regional authorities address the problem at European level. The reality is different from Zagreb to Lisbon, but from the European institutions we know that we need to provide a harmonized legal framework that protects the internal market, while achieving a correct balance between sustainable tourism and affordable housing.
This debate cannot wait.
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