Under the new restrictions, short-term renters will need to register with the city and must be present in the home for the duration of the rental

Under the new restrictions, short-term renters will need to register with the city and must be present in the home for the duration of the rental

Home-sharing company Airbnb said it had to stop accepting some reservations in New York City after new regulations on short-term rentals went into effect.

The new rules are intended to effectively end a free-for-all in which landlords and residents have been renting out their apartments by the week or the night to tourists or others in the city for short stays. Advocates say the practice has driven a rise in demand for housing in already scarce neighbourhoods in the city.

Under the new system, rentals shorter than 30 days are only allowed if hosts register with the city. Hosts must also commit to being physically present in the home for the duration of the rental, sharing living quarters with their guest. More than two guests at a time are not allowed, either, meaning families are effectively barred.

  • @[email protected]English
    20•1 year ago

    That’s fair, but I think it’s not particularly relevant here.

    Tourists should not be holidaying in people’s “back yards”.

    It’s not about keeping out certain “types of people”, it’s about not wanting any people who have specifically come to holiday and treat the area like their playground.

    And every Airbnb I know is run by someone who has multiple properties, and certainly isn’t letting holidaymakers live in their actual home.

    • @SCB
      -17•1 year ago

      Tourists should not be holidaying in people’s “back yards

      Literally just NIMBYism.

      • @[email protected]English
        17•1 year ago

        Okay, ignore the rest of what I said and focus on your little buzzword 🤷‍♂️

        I don’t want someone to knock down the house next door and start fracking the land, is that NiMbYiSm?

        • @SCB
          -14•1 year ago

          “I don’t want X people here” is a far cry from “let’s demolish more housing for oil speculation.”

          https://www.sidewalkchorus.com/p/nyc-housing-is-expensive

          Try to actually address this topic with an eye for a solution, if housing costs are actually something you give a shit about.

          • @[email protected]English
            15•1 year ago

            I just don’t see how anything you’re saying is relevant to Airbnb??

            Landlords are buying more houses and turning them into Airbnbs, hence less houses available and increasing prices for regular people.

            The idea that it’s really benefitting regular people is just not the reality of the situation.

            NIMBYism

            the behaviour of someone who does not want something to be built or done near where they live, although it does need to be built or done somewhere

            The area for holidaymakers are hotel districts. If you need to expand the actual hotel district then so be it, but don’t just let everywhere essentially be a hotel district.

            Edit: Can’t respond if you block me 🤷‍♂️

            • @SCB
              -10•1 year ago

              The area for holidaymakers are hotel districts

              We will never see lower home prices while NIMBYism exists.

              I’m willing to bet you don’t want tall buildings with dense housing for low-income people on your street either, yeah? They’d ruin your view/the charm of the neighborhood/bring crime?

              Congrats. You’re the problem.

              Edit: didn’t block you.

              • @[email protected]English
                7•1 year ago

                But turning half the units in that tall building full of dense housing into short-term lets that are a nuisance to the people who actually live there is okay in your book? Because, as you say, objecting to that would be “NIMBY”.

                Airbnb is way more profitable than conventional letting. Why would anyone offer stable leases to poor people when they can rent out the whole place for higher rates?

                In some parts of my country, it is becoming functionality impossible for families to rent a property for a stable term, because landlords want properties vacant over the holidays for short-term lets.

                https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/59744/1/airbnb-is-making-life-hell-for-young-renters-in-tourist-hotspots-cornwall

                But you think unregulated AirBnB is somehow a positive for housing?

                • @SCB
                  -5•1 year ago

                  Yes, because you’re still adding net housing in those buildings.

                  I think AirBnB helps people pay their rent in NYC, because data confirms that people do in fact use it as bridge income

                  I also think AirBnB both is not the culprit here (a housing shortage is) and that building more housing solves the problem more neatly while also discouraging using housing as an “investment” which then discourages predatory housing practices.

                  Human beings will always respond to incentives, and right now the incentive is to buy housing and hold it because it will be worth more later. That’s a big problem.

                  • @[email protected]English
                    6•1 year ago

                    Evidently AirBnB is not the only problem here, and building more residential homes is needed. But

                    discouraging using housing as an “investment” which then discourages predatory housing practices

                    is exactly what is happening here. If you can buy an empty property & rent it out to tourists for a chunk of money – with better returns than you can get on the stock market – people with capital will cheerfully do that. Except now with these rules there’s little point in them trying that in NYC.

                    Renters are free to continue to use AirBnB to continue to pay their rent (bans on subletting notwithstanding) as long as they’re still living in it at the time.

                    Long term capital considerations re. investment in real estate are a separate issue. Historically, housing has not performed like this.