Home away from home

Many countries are cracking down on vacation rental spaces in face of acute housing shortage

- VAISHALI DAR

Every traveller loves holiday rentals, but when they happen to eat up housing space in cities, there's not much love lost. Last year, over 10,000 Lisbon residents signed a petition for a referendum on banning holiday rentals in residential buildings, followed by other countries like Croatia, cities from Malaga and Barcelona in Spain to Athens and Budapest, in face of a tourism-related housing price crisis.

In fact, last year lawmakers in France's parliament passed a bill to strengthen short-term rental accommodation to combat the country's affordable housing shortage. The law affects all short-term and seasonal rental home owners in France, who run cottages and holiday homes.

As these places have clamped down on short-term rentals in an effort to alleviate housing shortages and reduce prices for local people, the latest is Spain's recent crackdown on Airbnb to remove over 65,000 listings due to housing regulation violations.