Short-term lettings: the crackdown continues to widen – new restrictions introduced in Verona too
The Council approves Amendment 70: compulsory changes of use and a ban on holiday rentals in the UNESCO-listed centre
A new planning designation for holiday rentals. And, in effect, a requirement to change category for anyone setting up this type of business. Not only that: within the UNESCO area of the historic centre, the opening of new bed and breakfasts is being halted.
These are the key elements of Amendment 70 to the Action Plan, the measure adopted this summer by Verona City Council which, for the first time in a local authority in the Veneto region, introduces a decisive crackdown on short-term lettings. This adds to the list of municipalities in the north that have taken steps to regulate the practice.
The model has been adopted from other Italian cities that have already taken similar steps: Florence, Bologna and also Naples and, to some extent, Rome (where a regulation is currently under consideration). And the trend observed by the Veneto regional government is one that is being discussed in many other towns and cities.
Tourist lettings on the rise
In 2014, the City of Verona’s tourist tax database recorded 56 holiday rentals. As at 30 June 2026, there are 4,366: seventy-eight times as many. In twelve years, a marginal form of accommodation has become the dominant form of hospitality in the city, radically reshaping the housing market. ‘We are witnessing a hollowing out of the historic centre, with a sharp rise in prices per square metre, leading to the displacement of residents,’ says the Councillor for the Budget, Michele Bertucco. The danger is that, over the years, we will find ourselves in the same situation as so many other tourist cities, both in Italy and abroad.
This is why Verona has chosen to take urban planning measures, whilst acknowledging that, as Bertucco explains, ‘a national initiative would be needed to standardise the rules in this sector’. However, for the time being, this intervention does not appear to be on the agenda: the new European regulations on short-term lettings will come first, with their introduction already scheduled for the coming weeks.
