Bern wants to defend itself against Airbnb
Bern's city council wants to counteract the increase in second homes in the old town. With a revision of the building code, the city council aims to ensure that more and more apartments are not rented out to business people or Airbnb customers on a short-term basis.
In his motion, Luzius Theiler (GPB-DA) objects to the fact that so many apartments in the old city are not even used by the owner or rented out normally. Instead, they are rented out to business people as furnished apartments at high prices or offered permanently on Airbnb. This leads to a desolation of the old town, criticized Theiler.
The Green politician's motion was supported by the Green Liberals, the GFL/EVP, the GB/JA and the SP/Juso parliamentary groups. There was, however, opposition from the bourgeois parties. In practice, the SVP objected that it would be extremely difficult to determine whether an apartment was used as a primary or secondary residence. In the opinion of the BDP/CVP group, the proposal calls into question the guarantee of vested rights and ownership.
As a result, the Bernese parliament passed the motion to the city council by 45 votes to 18. The motion explicitly calls for a ban on the conversion of apartments into second homes, but Theiler said he was open to other measures. The city government wants to take up the motion when revising the building code.
