Amsterdam Airbnb landlords find ways around tough new restrictions

Amsterdam residents renting out their homes on Airbnb, are finding ways to get around increasingly strict restrictions implemented by the municipality. Hundreds of Amsterdam rentals previously advertised as 'homes', are now listed as 'rooms', because the rules around renting out a room is less stringent, according to research by blogger Dirk Kloosterboer, AT5 reports.

Last year the municipality implemented the rule stating that Amsterdam homes can not be rented out on house sharing sites for more than 60 days per year. This rule does not apply to single rooms inside a house being rented out, according to the broadcaster.

In the run up to the 60 day rule being implemented, Kloosterboer noticed two trends. First the number of homes advertised for longer than 60 days per year decreased significantly. And hundreds of addresses previously listed as 'homes' were changed to 'rooms".

Kloosterboer acknowledges that some people simply decided to rent out a room in their home, instead of the entire home. "In that case, you would expect them to lower the price and adapt the description. But almost nowhere was the price lowered", he said to the broadcaster.