Minister goes after hotel flats
Up to 4000 flats in Copenhagen are owned by businesses who use middlemen to rent out the space to companies at sky-high prices, reported public broadcaster DR. The companies typically use them to house their non-resident employees working in Denmark.
Now the welfare minister, Karen Jespersen, is ready to put a stop to the practice, claiming that the flats are not only ones that should be available to city residents, but that the practice also helps drive up prices on the already expensive city housing market.
Jespersen and other opponents of the middleman practice, such as the Danish Tenants Union (LLO), have in the past unsuccessfully tried to stop it. Now Jespersen believes her office has found a statute with which they can use to go on the attack.
But Claus Højte, spokesperson for LLO, said the statute only applies to vacation rentals and will probably not succeed in stopping the practice. He suggested another possibility.
'When a flat is rented out to any entity other than an actual person, then a special allowance from the city should be required,' said Højte. 'That would effectively end this racket.' (RC)