Amsterdam mayor, housing corp under fire over Airbnb plans

Plans by housing corporation De Key to allow its tenants to rent their homes out via online platforms such as Airbnb have led to calls in parliament for the project to be stopped.

VVD parliamentarian Road van der Linde said he plans to ask housing minister Stef Blok to stop De Key pressing ahead with the experiment, which was announced earlier this week. He also criticised Amsterdam’s mayor Eberhard van der Laan for suggesting that social housing tenants are missing out on money because they are not allowed to rent out their homes.

Amsterdam’s agreement with Airbnb bans social housing tenants from placing their homes on the website. Home owners and private sector tenants can use Airbnb with the permission of their owners’ associations and landlords.

‘I really don’t understand what Van der Laan is on about,’ Van der Linde said. ‘What would we think if he put his official residence on Airbnb and pocketed the income?’

Social housing tenants, he pointed out, live in property where the rent is kept deliberately low. ‘How do you explain that to a policeman who can’t find a place to live in Amsterdam?’ he said.

The city’s ruling coalition has already said it does not support allowing social housing tenants to use Airbnb and has asked the mayor to explain his comments in more detail.