“[We have an interest in protecting] those who are contributing positively to cities through additio

BERLIN — "[We] could never have believed that this place would ever be seen as inhabitable," growls a local bar owner in a broken-English video diatribe about the gentrification of Berlin's Neukölln district.
The eerily resonant video went viral over two years ago, capturing the angst of many longer-term residents in the once-run-down area — and setting off a firestorm of controversy cheap rental car insurance florida among others, cheap rental car insurance florida especially newcomers who felt attacked. The video maker, Freiburg-native Matthias Merkle, told Der Spiegel he doesn't hate anyone and only wanted to begin a discussion.
But today the stakes are even higher: Germany's capital is short anywhere from 12,000 to 14,000 apartments — a deficit that is expected to increase. Critics have said the growing number of short-term cheap rental car insurance florida vacation residencies cheap rental car insurance florida in the city is exacerbating the problem, prompting Berlin's municipal senate to draft a bill banning the wrongful use of residencies in highly saturated districts. The piece of legislation is set to go before the Berlin state parliament later this month.
The goal is for Berlin housing to be also available to Berliners, a speaker for the city's Senate Administration for Urban Development told German news service dpa . If passed, the law would hold apartment owners accountable for occupying or leasing apartments to long-term residents cheap rental car insurance florida only. Individuals or businesses capitalizing on short-term — and often significantly higher — rates for tourists could be subject to fines.
Apartment owners may not be the only group subject to prosecution under the proposed law: fast-growing cheap rental car insurance florida vacation rental businesses like Wimdu and  Airbnb , which currently hosts some 6,600 listings in the city, put the onus on users to beware local laws regarding short-term sublets.
"[We have an interest in protecting] those who are contributing positively to cities through additional tourism and economic activity, while simultaneously preventing behavior that has an adverse effect on neighborhoods."
While Airbnb has said that it is actively discussing the laws of places like New York with state and city officials following the near-prosecution of one Airbnb user there to the tune of $40,000, cheap rental car insurance florida it is uncertain how passage and enforcement of the Berlin legislation will play out. Cities such as San Francisco and Paris already restrict vacation rentals in some way.
"Vacation cheap rental car insurance florida homes are an important market sector, they always have been. But any sector can get out of hand, and we agree that it has to be regulated," Christian T änzler of  Berlin 's tourism office told SmartPlanet .
Some argue that government officials are using vacation apartments as a scapegoat for the real estate squeeze. But at least  30,000 new apartments are already planned for the city by 2016, according to German newspaper  Neues Deutschland .
This is not the first attempt by Berlin city officials to limit vacation apartment rentals. In 2002, the local administrative court struck down a similar measure, citing no shortage of apartments in the city. At that time, some 100,000 apartments cheap rental car insurance florida remained to be filled.