Amsterdam fails to get EU backing to limit Airbnb rules

Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema has failed to persuade the European Commission to help crack down on people renting out their own homes to tourists.

Halsema travelled to Brussels in the spring with the mayors of other big European cities that struggle with mass tourism – like Barcelona and Paris – to lobby for tougher powers to regulate holiday rentals through sites like Airbnb.

But the EU Affordable Housing Act, presented on Wednesday, would not ban or limit holiday lets but instead establishes a standard for when an area is under “housing stress” – defined as one where house prices are at least eight times per capita disposable income and have risen over the past decade.

It then gives local authorities a legal basis to restrict commercial short-term rentals and second-home purchases in those areas.

Combating local damage
Amsterdam had asked the commission for two things, according to the Telegraaf: more powers to act against people letting out the home they live in, and for the right to intervene once an area’s liveability has been damaged by tourist rentals.

The commission seemingly dismissed both requests. The text of the act explicitly excludes a host’s primary residence from any restriction, on the grounds that renting out your own home does not take housing off the market. It also only covers measures justified by affordability and availability, not neighbourhood nuisance.

“It is questionable whether this proposal is going to help us,” Amsterdam housing alderman Zita Pels told the paper. Dirk Gotink, an MEP for the centre-right NSC, also told the Telegraaf: “we don’t need a European law to solve local problems.”

Amsterdam already restricts renting your own home through sites like Airbnb to 30 nights per year but has tried to go further in the past. In July 2020 the council banned holiday rentals outright in the red light district and part of the canal ring.

The Amsterdam district court overturned that ban in 2021, and the Council of State, the highest administrative court, upheld the ruling in 2023, saying a total ban was disproportionate and the city should first have tested less drastic measures, such as a lower night limit.

For people in the Netherlands with a second home in Spain, Portugal or France, nothing will change for now. The law would allow local authorities in stressed areas to restrict purchases of homes not used as a primary residence, but only for property bought after the measure takes effect.

The proposal must first be negotiated by the European Parliament and member states, a process likely to take a year or more.