Almost 5,000 Amsterdam apartments, houses and houseboats are permanently rented out to tourists and a further 1,000 owners break other rules, such as allowing more than four guests at one time, Trouw reported on Thursday.

The paper bases its claim on work by Amsterdam data analyst Nico van Gog and Airbnb expert Murray Cox from New York. They looked at information provided by Airbnb and ‘scraped’ from its website to get a better picture about what is available to rent in Amsterdam.

In the Dutch capital, private homes can only be rented out via Airbnb or Booking.com for a maximum 60 days and to no more than four people at one time. Owners also have to register that their property has been let each time new holidaymakers arrive.

The Labour party in Amsterdam wants to stop Amsterdammers renting out their homes via holiday let platforms such as Airbnb altogether and has included the measure in the party’s manifesto for the local elections next March.