Amsterdam city council plans to place further restrictions on Airbnb rentals in eight parts of the city, cutting the maximum number of nights a property can be let out to tourists from 30 to 15.

The current maximum is 30 nights citywide, but the reduction in seven city centre neighbourhoods and part of De Pijp is needed to further rein in the nuisance caused by over-tourism, officials told the Parool.

The plans will be open for public consultation from January 5 for six weeks, and officials hope to implement the lower limit in April.

Research suggests that at least 30% of locals in the eight affected areas say tourism is a problem and the average number of rental nights per 100 homes is far above the city average of 14.

At least four other areas were identified as problem neighbourhoods earlier this year, but they will now get extra monitoring instead.

In September, a group of Amsterdam residents said they are taking the city council to court for failing to tackle rising tourist numbers. In particular, they are angry that the council’s self-imposed limit of 20 million overnight stays a year has been broken for the past three years.

Amsterdam introduced the limit in 2020 after more than 30,000 residents signed a petition calling for action and pledged to take steps to keep to the maximum. However, this year almost 24 million overnight stays have been forecast.