EU plans to help cities curb tourist rentals

The European Union is set to lay out rules helping European cities 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 arrives as Florence, like Venice and Rome, has watched its historic centre hollow out under the weight of holiday lets, with residents pushed to the periphery and rents climbing beyond the reach of local wages.

The EU plan would give cities a legal framework to impose limits on platforms that have multiplied since the mid-2010s, when the short-let market turned the Tuscan capital into one of Europe's most tightly squeezed housing markets. According to the wire report, the rules are meant to address the pressure that platforms place on urban housing stock, a problem that has become acute in the region's smaller hill towns as well as its capital.