A wild market in Europe, apartments are rented out as apartments: Rents are difficult to pay, the corpse of Potemkin's village

The syndrome of a city buzzing with foreigners and tourists is already well felt in Belgrade. That is, it is especially felt by people who do not own their real estate but are instructed to live under rent.

More and more apartments are rented out as apartments, the market is quite wild. For the ordinary world, this means that it becomes increasingly difficult to pay rent, or that it is pushed to the edges of cities. Other European cities have been dealing with this for a long time.

It is worst in tourist destinations that are not particularly large - such as Palma in Majorca. More and more apartment owners are renting them out to tourists, which means that the residents of that city can barely afford those prices. In Palma, it is difficult to find an apartment for less than 900 euros per month.

Although the owners make good money, it is a total disaster: tourists have little regard for the building and neighbors, during the season it is impossible for restaurateurs and merchants to find accommodation for workers, and during the off-season the entire streets fall into the deadness of the Potemkin village.

What's worse, many apartments are rented "on the black" so there is no income from taxes.

And the authorities in Madrid realized that they should first clean up and pay 700.000 euros for an action plan for that city.

The number of inspection workers has been increased from 15 to 20, and they are now equipped with credit cards with which they can pay for some accommodation, pretending to be tourists. Because that's the only way to find out exactly where the apartment is and who is renting it.

It's not the middleman's fault

Big cities that attract masses of tourists, such as Paris, Amsterdam or Rome, have the same problem.

Strict restrictions on the number of apartments are being introduced, it is already almost impossible to get a tourist rental permit, but there are still fewer and fewer apartments from which residents go to work in the morning and children go to school, rather than tourists with their suitcases.

All the registers and regulations lead to the fact that a lot of things take place without any laws, so even the Italian Minister of Tourism Daniela Santanče cries that "we need some kind of real regulation".

Because platforms like Airbnb are also a problem: there are already hundreds of thousands of apartments on offer across Europe.

When the Spanish Balearic Islands started criminal proceedings against Airbnb because it also offers illegal apartments, the court acquitted that internet portal of guilt. Because he is an intermediary, and the culprit is the owner of the apartment.

The Balearic Minister of Tourism, Jago Neguerela, also complained about this in Brussels, for whom it is "unacceptable that platforms such as Airbnb offer apartments that are illegal".

Only those with permission

This is exactly the path that the European Union wants to take: in all member states, the obligation to register apartments that are rented out to tourists will be introduced, and such portals will have to check whether the apartment has a permit in order to be allowed to put it on offer.

The European Commission is convinced that this way "there will be significantly fewer illegal offers", as well as that there will be "greater opportunities for competent services to mitigate the harmful consequences of short-term apartment rentals".

This European regulation could enter into force as early as next year, and many cities in Europe are looking forward to it.

Let's say in Berlin, where the secretary for European integration of that city, Gary Woop, thinks that this regulation is already "practical" and that it will help them in better monitoring and punishing criminals.

And when the fine gives you a headache...

Because Berlin is also moaning about this problem. It is almost impossible for "normal" Berliners to find an apartment they can afford. Just four years ago, there were 26.500 apartments in Berlin offered on Airbnb alone - and since then there have probably been more.

Berlin also has strict rules on renting out apartments, but supervision is very difficult - and sanctions against criminals are practically non-existent, Vup complains.

When it comes to sanctions, it's up to national governments to do something - if they really want to.

Let's go back to Mallorca and its "action plan". In the first three months, 337 cases of apartment rental were checked, and in 45 cases, the procedure and collection of fines was initiated. And that is bad news for the owner of an illegal apartment in Majorca: a fine of 40.000 to 400.000 euros is foreseen.