Transcript

Norway is quietly introducing a new tool for cities to control tourism · STR Unpacked

Ben: Morning and welcome to your short-term rental bulletin. Norway is giving a new tool to control tourism and it directly affects short-term rentals. The Norwegian government has approved legislating allowing municipalities to introduce a tourist tax of up to 3 % on overnight accommodation including hotels and short-term rentals. The key detail is this won't be a nationwide tax instead local governments decide whether to apply it. meaning high-pressure destinations, especially the fjord towns and the Arctic tourism hot spots, can adopt it first. Norway already has relatively strict short-term rental rules, including around the 90-day annual cap for whole-home rentals ⁓ in many apartment buildings, depending on building bylaws. Rather than banning short-term rentals outright, governments are increasingly giving cities financial tools to margin tourism pressure. The next wave of short-term mental regulation in Europe may come through local taxes, not bans. Thank you for watching. I'll see you tomorrow.