Service: Holiday rental housing fraud risk

Amsterdam has limited living space; both for citizens and visitors. If a citizen wants to rent out their home or houseboat to tourists, they need to meet certain requirements. For example, they can do so for a maximum of 30 nights per year and a maximum of 4 people at a time. They must also report it to the municipality. Not everyone adheres to those conditions. The municipality sometimes receives reports, for instance from neighbours or rental platforms, who suspect that a home has been rented out without meeting those requirements. If such a report is filed, employees of the department of Surveillance & Enforcement can start an investigation. From 1 July 2020, a pilot will be carried out for six months with an algorithm that supports the employees of the department of Surveillance & Enforcement in their investigation of the reports made concerning possible illegal holiday rentals. The algorithm helps prioritize the reports so that the limited enforcement capacity can be used efficiently and effectively. By analyzing the data of related housing fraud cases of the past 5 years, it calculates the probability of an illegal holiday rental situation on the reported address.