Another city bans keyboxes. 400 euro fine for breaking the ban

Milan is another Italian city that has banned the installation of key boxes for apartments rented by tourists on the walls and doors of tenement houses. The authorities of the capital of Lombardy passed the ban two months before the opening of the Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics, which will attract thousands of tourists.

Key boxes, opened with a special code made available to people renting apartments, have become one of the symbols of the so-called excessive tourism. One of its manifestations is the allocation of entire tenement houses in cities for short rentals to tourists, and the result – a rapid increase in apartment prices on the real estate market.

Installing the so-called keyboxes were previously banned, among other things in Rome and Florence, and the polemic on this topic has been going on for many months.

The regulations issued by the Milan authorities will enter into force at the beginning of January, a month before the Winter Olympic Games, before which the number of apartments available for short rent and the demand for them are growing rapidly.

Property owners will be fined EUR 400 for violating the ban. They will also have to cover the costs of removing the boxes.

Last year, the Italian Ministry of the Interior introduced a nationwide ban on self-registration of arrival and opening apartments by tourists using keyboxes. As an argument, issues of public safety and order were cited and it was ordered that the apartment must be made available by the owner or an authorized person. In May this year, the Administrative Court overturned the ban, explaining that handing over keys in person does not improve security.

There is a test of strength in Italian cities against the background of the battle for hiding places.

Sylwia Wysocka from Rome (PAP)

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