Amanda Hoover of WIRED tells her readers that after New York placed strict restrictions on short-term rentals six months ago, rents still remain high as former hosts are frustrated, causing a boom in Airbnb rentals in nearby New Jersey. Hoover writes:
Six months have passed since New York City all but banned short-term rentals like those offered via Airbnb. The policy was intended to free up apartments in America’s most congested city to become homes for long-term New Yorkers, instead of housing rotating out-of-town guests that bring noise, trash, and worse. So far, the law’s most noticeable effects seem to be sending droves of tourists to New Jersey and frustrating small-time Airbnb hosts.
New York City’s law immediately wiped out some 15,000 short-term rentals from Airbnb’s site when it was implemented in September, as the site automatically converted them to longer stays to remain compliant with the new rules. As of February, there are fewer than 5,000, according to Inside Airbnb, a housing advocacy group that scrapes Airbnb’s site for data.
Other cities are watching as New York and its anticipated 65 million tourists for 2024 navigate the new regulations. A recent search on Airbnb for places to stay for a weekend pulled up individual rooms in occupied apartments scattered across the city, hotel rooms, or entire apartments and homes in nearby New Jersey. There are some 35,000 New York City apartments listed on Airbnb for stays of 30 nights or more, according to AirDNA, a short-term rental intelligence firm, which are legal and do not require the short-term rental licenses. That suggests many apartments previously listed on Airbnb haven’t been converted into long-term leases for more permanent residents.[…]
Lindsay, of the homeowners association, says people like him are hurting while their counterparts in New Jersey benefit. Renting out an apartment on Airbnb “was a lifeline for me, especially during the pandemic,” he says. The association is working on ways the New York City Council might amend the law to allow these smaller hosts to operate short-term rentals. Right now, he says, it fails by grouping small homeowners in with big-time investors. “It treats all property owners as if they’re these evil, maniacal villains.”
Read more here.
