District determined
Is every second holiday apartment on Sylt illegal?
March 16, 2024, 5:41 p.m
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Locals and workers can hardly find affordable housing in tourist hotspots on the North Sea. The authorities are examining thousands of holiday apartments – and have already shut down 100. This could threaten every second of these accommodations on Sylt alone. But not everyone is happy.
On the North Sea islands of Sylt, Föhr and Amrum as well as in the North Sea resorts of Sankt Peter-Ording and Dagebüll, around 100 holiday apartments were closed last year. “About 50 of them on Sylt alone,” as district building officer Burkhardt Jansen told “Spiegel”. The authority has been taking action against illegal holiday apartments in holiday areas in the North Frisia district for some time. The review is scheduled to last ten years. Up to 3,500 of the approximately 7,500 holiday apartments on the island of Sylt could be illegal.
According to the information, the background to the reviews is the municipalities’ increasing difficulties in providing enough affordable permanent housing for local residents. On Sylt, for example, prices are so high that many islanders can no longer afford to live there. At the same time, many companies can no longer find workers locally.
“What we are seeing is ongoing illegal conversion of housing,” Jansen explained. The “misuse” of the apartments for tourism is often linked to other violations. Converted basements and attic apartments have too few escape routes. In addition, fire protection is not taken into account. “We can no longer find a healthy mix between holiday, second and permanent homes,” said Jansen. “As a regulatory authority, we are now required to take consistent action to give the communities back sovereignty over their planning areas.”
Not surprisingly, the new official practice is met with resistance. “Massive, sometimes dramatic cuts for Sylt homeowners and for the Sylt economy,” fears the deputy mayor of the municipality of Sylt, Carsten Kerkamm. For many, it could become impossible to keep their house without the income from vacation rentals. Sylt families might even have to sell their properties and move away, said the CDU politician. He now wants to check whether some holiday apartments can be approved retrospectively. To do this, around 130 development plans and “unplanned areas” would have to be examined.
There is also discontent on the neighboring island of Föhr: up to “half of the rental portfolio” could be affected, according to a letter from Föhr associations to Schleswig-Holstein’s Prime Minister Daniel Günther. “The most important pillar of our economy is under existential threat!”