EU short-term rental rules loom over Alpine tourist towns

The European Union is set to lay out rules helping European cities to curb short-term rentals such as Airbnb in a bid to tackle rising house prices, according to plans seen by AFP on Friday. The proposal, reported by The Local Italy, would give local authorities new tools to regulate the explosive growth of holiday lets that have transformed urban neighbourhoods across the continent.

For Valle d'Aosta, the measure arrives at a moment when the region's mountain villages are caught between two pressures: a tourism economy that depends on seasonal visitors and a housing stock increasingly converted into short-term lets. Aosta, Courmayeur and smaller hamlets along the Dora Baltea valley have seen apartments disappear from the long-term market as owners chase higher returns from week-long ski and summer lets.

The EU plan, still to be formally presented, is framed around affordability. Rising house prices in tourist destinations have priced out residents, and Brussels is responding to calls from mayors across Europe who say they lack legal tools to act.