Newsletter Newsletters Events Events Podcasts Videos Africanews
Loader
Residents of Athens suburb claim that Airbnb is "pricing them out".

Video. Is Airbnb 'pricing out' residents in an Athens suburb?

Updated:

Long-term residents of a central Athens neighbourhood say they are being priced out by Airbnb. Koukaki has become one of the website's most popular tourist destinations, but it's claimed the result has been skyrocketing rents and evictions for some tenants.

Long-term residents of a central Athens neighbourhood say they are being priced out by rental website Airbnb.

Koukaki has become one of the website's most popular tourist destinations, but it's claimed the result has been skyrocketing rents and eviction for some tenants.

Stella Papadopoulou, a hairdresser who works in the area, told Euronews:

"I know of landlords that asked families to move out so they could use the properties for Airbnb. In some cases, they actually said they needed the apartment for themselves, which was not true.

Some families with small children left their apartments, they could not find anything else close and had to move to other regions."

Residents have countered that Airbnb helps them have revenue from properties that are still heavily taxed and were often empty for many key years of the economic crisis.

They also say the influx of tourists brings an extra 2 billion Euros into the Greek economy annually.

Watch our report on the story in the player above.

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT