Medical tourism in Munich is booming, but on the other hand, the living space is shrinking. The city of Munich is fighting against misappropriation, but is it successful? In some parts of the city the situation is especially alarming. — Photo by Tourism Review

The Bavarian city saved 298 apartments in the past year - which were rented illegally as a holiday home or to medical tourists who were left empty or used as an office. That does not sound like much, but to produce 298 social housing would cost around 69 million euros. Social Affairs Officer Dorothee Schiwy emphasizes this in the new report on the misappropriation of housing. The action of the city shows "clearly visible successes".

Eight employees are a part of the special investigation group of apartments as of now. Schiwy wants to hire three more to handle the multitude of cases. As of August 2018, the investigators plowed 220 cases in which apartments were rented illegally, meaning that they were rented to tourists for more than eight weeks.

Since this year, citizens can report alleged misappropriations online. Since then, 791 messages have been received, 263 apartments have been rented illegally as holiday apartments, 47 for medical tourists and 187 as commercial premises. For the rest, vacancy was suspected.

However, successes are difficult in the area of rents to medical tourists. The city is currently processing 200 cases. 86 apartments could be "saved". In 2018, €622,800 in penalty payments were threatened, of which €285,000 were taken.

Read the full article at tourism-review.com