Greece gives homeowners incentives to ditch short-term rentals

Greece said on Friday it would give a three-year tax break to homeowners who convert their short-term rentals to long ones, becoming the latest European country to clamp down on holiday lets to tackle a housing shortage.

Europe's short-term rental boom has already prompted tourism hotspots such as Spain's Canary Islands, Lisbon, Berlin and Florence to announce restrictions on such lets, which many local people blame for pricing permanent residents out of the market.

As part of a plan to tackle housing shortages, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said last week that Greece also planned to increase a tax on short-term rentals and ban new licences in central Athens.

Residents of the capital responded positively to the plans.

"It's a huge issue because it's changing the urban landscape. Where there are traditional buildings, now there's a modern one next to...