Netherlands Follows Spain And More Countries In Airbnb Registrations And Investment Bans To Purge Hyper-Tourism

European countries come together to fight against Airbnb listings, investment properties, and overtourism. Housing shortage and rising levels of social resentment in Europe have reached the tipping point. This is due to unprecedented increases in rental costs, the displacement of residents, and the transformation of ancient cities into large outdoor hotels.

What began as localized municipal restrictions in high-profile cities has evolved into a coordinated, multi-nation crusade. From strict mandatory registration systems to outright bans on investor-owned short-term lets, European nations are deploying aggressive housing controls to break the cycle of hyper-tourism and restore affordability to local residents.

How Overtourism Is Affecting Europe

Over the past decade, the rapid conversion of long-term residential housing into profit-driven vacation rentals has fundamentally reshaped European society:

• Squeezing Local Housing Markets: As individual residential units are acquired by commercial operators and investors, the supply of long-term housing drops dramatically. Rents across major European urban hubs have skyrocketed well past average income growth, forcing working-class families, healthcare workers, and students out of city centers.
• Neighborhood Depopulation: Historic districts in cities like Barcelona, Venice, and Amsterdam face an unprecedented loss of permanent populations. Traditional grocery stores, bakeries, and local services are routinely replaced by souvenir shops, luggage storage lockers, and high-turnover tourist amenities.
• Overwhelmed City Infrastructure: Massive year-round tourist inflows place immense pressure on public transportation networks, waste management, emergency services, and local utilities, exhausting public resources meant for year-round residents.
• Erosion of Social Cohesion: High tenant turnover leads to persistent noise complaints, safety concerns, and an unpredictable living environment for permanent residents sharing apartment buildings with constant rotating guests.

Nation-by-Nation Breakdown: How Countries Are Fighting Back

1. Netherlands

Following in the footsteps of Southern European nations, the Netherlands is tightening the legal vise on short-term rentals and speculative residential investments:

• Mandatory National Registration:Under strict municipal frameworks and EU digital single-entry point rules, every short-term property must display a verified registration number.Unregistered properties are forcibly removed from platforms within 48 hours.
• Investment Property Exclusions:Cities like Amsterdam have functionally banned short-term rentals in non-primary residences.Investment properties, secondary homes, and corporate-owned flats cannot operate as vacation rentals without changing official building zoning—a permit virtually never granted.
• Drastic Night Caps:Amsterdam caps primary-residence vacation rentals to just 30 nights per calendar year, with ongoing proposals targeting 15-night limits in saturated central zones like Centrum and De Pijp.

2. Spain

Spain serves as the epicenter of Europe’s anti-overtourism movement. Driven by massive street demonstrations, Spanish authorities have launched sweeping legislative interventions:

• Phased Out Licenses:Barcelona announced a historic plan to phase out and revoke all 10,000+ short-term tourist rental licenses across the city by 2028, effectively banning Airbnbs to return those properties to the local housing market.
• National Single Rental Registry (NRU): Spain became the first EU member state to implement a mandatory national registry (NRUA) requiring all short-term listings to hold a verified property registry code.
• Zoning Freezes:Historic centers in cities like Valencia, Palma de Mallorca, and San Sebastián have instituted total freezes on issuing any new short-term rental permits.

3. Portugal

Through its comprehensive “Mais Habitação” (More Housing) legislative package, Portugal ended years of unregulated short-term rental expansion:

• License Freeze:The government placed a full freeze on new short-term accommodation licenses in major urban zones, including Lisbon and Porto.
• Golden Visa Shutdown: Portugal dismantled the real estate investment path of its “Golden Visa” scheme, preventing foreign non-EU investors from buying residential real estate specifically to operate as holiday rentals.

4. Italy

In response to widespread student protests and historic urban erosion, Italian authorities have implemented targeted national and city-level measures:

• National Identification Code (CIN):Italy made the National Identification Code mandatory for all short-term rentals nationwide, requiring physical codes displayed outside buildings and imposing heavy fines for non-compliant listings.
• Historic Center Bans:Cities like Florence banned any new short-term holiday rentals within their UNESCO-protected historic centers, while Venice restricted new short-term lets and instituted day-tripper entry fees to manage crowding.

5. Greece

Faced with rapidly rising rental costs in Athens and popular Aegean island destinations, Greece has moved decisively to curb short-stay conversions:

• Neighborhood Permit Suspensions: Greece instituted multi-year suspensions on issuing new short-term rental permits across high-pressure districts in central Athens.
• Golden Visa Investment Escalation: The government sharply raised the minimum property investment thresholds required for foreign buyers in high-demand regions to discourage speculative residential acquisitions.

6. France

France continues to enforce some of Europe’s strictest regulatory frameworks for urban housing markets:

• Strict 120-Day Limit:Primary residences in Paris and major cities like Lyon and Nice are strictly capped at 120 nights per year, monitored directly through mandatory municipal registration systems.
• Commercial Conversion Mandates:Operating a secondary or investment property as a short-term tourist rental requires an official commercial conversion permit.In Paris, owners must compensate for the loss of housing by purchasing and converting an equivalent amount of commercial space into residential housing elsewhere.

The New European Standard

The era of unrestricted short-term vacation rental investments across Europe is officially coming to a close. Supported by the EU-wide short-term rental data-sharing framework (EU Regulation 2024/1028), member states now possess the digital infrastructure to track guest nights, verify host identities, and auto-enforce compliance across all platforms.

Europe acts in unison to block short-term investors, regulate Airbnb listings, and rein in overtourism.

In the midst of the growing trend of placing housing above investment properties in cities across Europe, the balance of power is tilting in favor of the community.