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Reykjavik, the northernmost national capital city in the world. Photo credit: ©Visit Reykjavik and ©RagnarThSigurdsson
Authorities in Iceland have moved to curb the number of residents offering properties up for holiday rent on Airbnb in a bid to counterbalance the country’s overwhelming visitor numbers, The Telegraph online newspaper in London reported.
The legislation, which could come into effect this week, would impose a business tax on people letting out their homes for more than 90 days a year, according to the newspaper.
“Policymakers are in the final stages of discussing new rules on home sharing across the country. The proposed rules support home sharing on Airbnb generally but include provisions that could require some occasional home sharers to register as businesses,” Airbnb said in a statement.
The move follows a ruling in April that required those living in an apartment block to secure approval from other residents in the building before offering a property on the holiday lets website.
Iceland has seen a huge surge in tourism in the last five years. In 2015 Iceland welcomed 1.2 million tourists and is expecting 1.6 million in 2016, with growing interest from travellers – from Northern Lights seekers to fans of the new Star Wars film or the Game of Thrones TV-series, both filmed in Iceland.
But the authorities fear Iceland will be unable to accommodate more and more tourists, projected to be nearly 30,000 a day this year, and want to protect both the unspoilt landscapes as well as the housing market.
“This strong growth is expected to continue in 2016. But with it come a number of challenges: to preserve the natural surroundings that are such an important part of Iceland’s appeal and to build up the infrastructure needed to maintain Iceland’s worldwide competitiveness as a travel destination,” said Kristín Hrönn Guðmundsdóttir, the executive director at Íslandsbanki Research.
While the number of available hotel rooms in the country grew more than ever last year, with 290 new rooms created, it is still not enough to meet the estimated requirement of 1,400, according to the latest report on tourism by the Icelandic bank.
Airbnb has seen a 124 per cent increase in usage in the last 12 months, with nearly 4,000 listings created in January this year, compared to 1,700 last year, according to figures from the local travel website Túristi.
In the capital Reykjavik, where most tourists stay, there was a 126 per cent increase in total Airbnb listings in November last year, with more than 100 apartments available on its main street alone, compared to December 2014, while the country as a whole saw a 156 per cent increase in Airbnb stays last year compared to 2014, welcoming 211,000 guests, the company reported.
Residents are said to have suffered from the rising demand for holiday rental accommodation which has been coupled with a dramatic increase in housing prices in central parts of the capital, and a shortage in long-term rental options.
“We don’t want downtown Reykjavík to be tourists only, with no locals,” Áshildur Bragadóttir, the director of Visit Reykjavík, told The Guardian.
See the full story in The Telegraph here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/iceland-to-restrict-airbnb-rentals-to-cope-with-tourism-surge/
News source: www.telegraph.co.uk
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