The Frankfurt Administrative Court has rejected an emergency appeal filed by a real estate company against the city's building authority. The company had wanted to operate an aparthotel with vacation apartments in the Sachsenhausen district, but the building authority had prohibited it.
The court said the company should first have applied for a change of use under the Hessian Building Code. It also would have needed approval from the city under its ordinance governing the use of residential space as vacation apartments. Neither the required change of use nor the approval had been obtained.
Housing over vacation rentals
The city says its vacation apartment ordinance is meant to stop scarce housing from being lost to the tight rental market through conversion into vacation apartments.
Simone Zapke, head of the building authority, said the ruling sent an important signal for protecting Frankfurt's housing stock. She said the city would keep acting against unapproved vacation apartments and enforcing building regulations, and that two new positions had been created in the building authority for that purpose. The authority became aware of the Sachsenhausen apartments through tips found online.
