Amsterdam city council’s plans to put an upper limit on the number of short-stay apartments in the city will make it harder for expats to find somewhere to live, say landlords and developers.

The council has decided to allocate short-stay licences for 1,350 apartments – meaning they can be rented out for periods of between one week and six months.
The new rule is due to come into effect in March 2009.
In return for a five-year licence to rent out a short-stay flat, landlords will have to pay a fee equal to 1.2% of the property’s value.
Property group Vesteda, which opened a 174 luxury apartment complex in Amsterdam’s Zuidas business district last week, says it is considering legal action against the plan. ‘There is no other city that does this,’ CEO Huub Smeets said.
According to the Financieele Dagblad, MPs have asked the government if Amsterdam is allowed to introduce a quota for expat housing. They say the plan will be counterproductive to efforts to attract more multinationals to the capital.
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