To help ease the housing crisis, Florence is planning to ban new short-term tourist rentals in a significantly wider area. The number of homes impacted will nearly triple due to this strategy, which aims to protect residential life and strike a balance between local needs and tourism. Some think the limits are bad for local companies and entrepreneurs in the tourism industry.

One of Italy’s most popular tourist destinations, Florence, is preparing to further restrict new short-term rentals to tourists in an effort to alleviate housing shortages. The ban will be extended beyond the city’s UNESCO-listed historic center.

The goal is to get approval in early June for the bill, which Mayor Sara Funaro has referred to as a national first, and it is scheduled to be submitted before a city council committee on Wednesday.

Over the next two years, it will triple the number of residences affected by the restriction from 35,593 to over 103,000, by prohibiting the establishment of new short-term tourist lets across around 16 square kilometres (6 square miles) of the city.

There will still be plenty of short-term rentals when the proposal goes into force, but no new ones will be able to activate. Airbnb declined to comment on the proposal at this time.

Similar to other popular tourist destinations in Europe, Florence has been facing challenges such as an influx of short-term vacation rentals, increasing rents, and concerns over the displacement of long-term residents from major neighbourhoods.According to Funaro, who spoke to Reuters, the goal is quite clear: to uphold our dedication to preserving residential life and ensuring a sustainable equilibrium between tourism and the everyday lives of our inhabitants.

To avoid an influx of registrations just before the restrictions go into effect, the mayor has asked for a quick procedure.According to the statistics, short-term rentals for tourists have become a major phenomena in our city, she added.

The decision to prohibit new short-term residential rentals in the historic center was made by Florence in 2023. Despite opponents’ challenges, the city has emerged victorious in multiple rulings from the regional administrative court regarding that legislation.

Existing short-term rentals are protected by a moratorium until May 31, 2028. There will be a gradual decrease in the number of vacation rentals in the city after that date. In contrast to operators operating on a commercial basis, Funaro stated that the city would prefer modest local owners who use a flat as a supplemental source of income.

But some who are against the limits point out that the previous constraints didn’t do anything to reduce average rents or bring people back to the city center.In spite of this, Lorenzo Fagnoni, president of Property Managers Italia and chief executive of Apartments Florence, told Reuters that the city has decided to expand the bans to districts beyond the center. This will continue to affect people, small owners, and enterprises associated to hospitality.

Professionals in the hospitality industry, as well as those in the fields of property management, cleaning, maintenance, technology, and art, are all supported by short-term rentals, he said.

The “criminalising entrepreneurial activity in tourism” he said would hurt a vital sector of the local economy was an additional point.

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