Icelandic authorities are reconsidering passing legislation that tightens control over Airbnb hosts. The new policy, which is reportedly going through the final stages of review and could become law this week, would require Airbnb hosts to pay business taxes if they rent out their properties—in full or in part—for more than 90 days per year.
The proposed legislation is a result of a huge influx of tourists into the island country with a population of 335,000. In 2016, the estimated number of visitors coming there will reach 1.6 million—29 percent more than year before. This supposedly leads to locals being pushed out of the capital's centre by short-term renters and rising house prices.
In April this year, Iceland's supreme court already tightened the rules for Airbnb hosts. Every person who wants to rent a room or a flat in an apartment building now has to obtain permission from the other residents.
An earlier report by a consultancy firm Expectus showed that there were 2,551 Airbnb flats registered in Reykjavik in April, which could accommodate up to 9,923 guests. More than a hundred of them are located on the popular Laugavegur street in the city centre.
"The city centre is being hollowed out, becoming sort of Disneyfied," Gunnar þór Jóhannesson, an associate professor in geography and tourism at the University of Iceland, told the Guardian.
The number of Airbnb flats available in Reykjavik had grown 126 percent from November 2014 to November 2015, the report also stated. One of the reasons of the explosive growth could be that not enough hotels are being built to accommodate tourists.
“We are only building 30 percent of what we need in the capital area,” Elvar Orri Hreinsson, a research analyst at Íslandsbanki, told the Guardian.
Icelandic lawmakers an authorities are considering a number of other measures to safeguard the island nation from marauding tourists, including a cap on the number of tourists allowed on popular hiking trails, as well as launching direct flights to cities other than Reykjavik to distribute the visitors more evenly.
reader comments
4