New York Cracked Down on Airbnb One Year Ago. NYC Housing Is Still a Mess

It’s been 1 twelvemonth since New York enacted a law that barred astir whole-apartment rentals for short-term stays connected platforms similar Airbnb. Since then, the fig of stays nether 30 days has plummeted successful the city, but Airbnb is raising questions astir whether the lawmakers’ stated goals—lowering rents and opening up apartments for full-time residents—have been achieved.

Airbnb fought New York’s Local Law 18 successful court, calling it a “de facto ban” connected the platform, but failed to artifact it. Now, the institution is asking New York to reconsider. In a recent post, the institution called the outcomes of the instrumentality “predictable.” In the city, rent prices stay precocious and lodging availability low; edifice prices person seen tiny increases, too. “The information is showing the instrumentality isn’t working,” Theo Yedinsky, vice president of nationalist argumentation astatine Airbnb, tells WIRED. “We’re asking for what I deliberation are beauteous reasonable, sensible changes.”

The instrumentality lone allows radical to rent retired rooms successful their homes to 2 guests for stays shorter than 30 nights, and requires hosts to registry their apartments with the city. For stays nether 30 nights, hosts indispensable beryllium home. (Entire apartments and homes tin inactive beryllium recovered connected platforms similar Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com, but indispensable beryllium rented for 30 nights oregon longer.) Yedinsky says Airbnb is calling for New York to fto radical rent retired their afloat superior residence erstwhile they’re distant for abbreviated periods of time, and to undo a regularisation mandating that determination beryllium nary locks connected interior doors successful under-30-night stays.

When New York passed the law, it was seen by galore arsenic a trial lawsuit for ways to rein successful short-term rentals. Other cities astir the satellite person grappled with however to modulate rentals, which tin bring sound and parties, and whitethorn siphon disconnected lodging for locals to tourists. (In 2022, much apartments were listed connected Airbnb than were disposable for semipermanent lease successful New York. Many of those listings were illegal, but the metropolis lacked an enforcement mechanics until past year.) This summer, Barcelona went adjacent further than New York, announcing that each short-term rentals volition beryllium barred from the metropolis travel precocious 2028.

Those opposing the instrumentality accidental the regulations are onerous. They artifact not conscionable megalandlords, but galore one- and two-family homeowners from making spare income to offset their ain lodging costs. In the days aft the instrumentality took effect, the fig of short-term rentals connected Airbnb fell by 15,000, a astir 70 percent drop. The interaction has been astir melodramatic extracurricular of Manhattan. Some neighborhoods successful surrounding boroughs person seen the fig of short-term rental listings driblet by 90 percent since the instrumentality took effect, according to information analytics steadfast AirDNA.

As of July, successful New York determination were conscionable implicit 5,000 short-term rentals connected Airbnb, but much than 32,000 stays disposable for 30 oregon much nights, according to Inside Airbnb, a lodging advocacy radical that tracks the platform. Those figures suggest that galore short-term stays haven’t been converted to yearlong leases, but alternatively stay connected Airbnb arsenic mid-length stays.