<story><title>Berlin Is Banning Most Vacation Apartment Rentals</title><url>http://www.citylab.com/housing/2016/04/airbnb-rentals-berlin-vacation-apartment-law/480381/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>jlg23</author><text>Some background tidbits the article does not explain very well or at all:&lt;p&gt;* For short-term rentals (vacation homes) one needs to have a permit and pay taxes.&lt;p&gt;* Subletting your apartment without permission from the landlord is illegal, making a profit and not declaring it is tax fraud (and most don&amp;#x27;t declare them because then they&amp;#x27;d also have to have a permit and pay tourist tax).&lt;p&gt;* The landlord has to grant permission for sublets (also whole apartments) if the tenant is temporarily moving out of town but wants to keep the apartment, but also here: no profit allowed. EDIT: The landlord has a right to review &lt;i&gt;every single&lt;/i&gt; intermediate tenant - so he can refuse them (this basically rules out the AirBnB model in this scenario).&lt;p&gt;What really annoys people is that in the best locations there are lots of people who ignore the existing laws and the rest of society has to pay for that: by not finding an affordable space to live, by having to endure a new set of drunk neighbors every weekend who either party in the apartment or come home drunk and very noisy at 4am and who, understandably, don&amp;#x27;t participate in the house community (and yes, people tend to know their neighbors and even talk to them!).&lt;p&gt;But before adopting new laws it would have been much simpler to simply enforce the existing laws. Get all these folks who offer apartments on AirBnB 365 days a year and check whether they have all permits and taxes. Let them pay fines. Put them on a list of people whose tax-statements and books are checked annually (they do that with everybody else who commits tax fraud or just annoys the tax clerks).&lt;p&gt;Calling German laws too rigid is everyone&amp;#x27;s right, but it is also the right of German people to value diversity in their cities enough to protect it by those rigid laws.</text></comment>
<story><title>Berlin Is Banning Most Vacation Apartment Rentals</title><url>http://www.citylab.com/housing/2016/04/airbnb-rentals-berlin-vacation-apartment-law/480381/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>solidsnack9000</author><text>A city is more than a rental market -- it&amp;#x27;s also a community. This is where all the-market-fixes-everything kind of arguments fall short. Unfettered development would eventually stack Berlin with enough housing but the disruption to people&amp;#x27;s lives would be immense; and Berlin would lose much of the charm and character that has drawn so many people there to begin with.&lt;p&gt;A city is one part market and one part enchanted forest.</text></comment>