Would you like to rent an apartment in New York as long as you are discreet, pay in cash and don’t talk to the concierge? Since the beginning of September, the rules have been tightened by the New York municipality for owners using Airbnb and the response is what we expected: schemes, lobbying and black market, as an article from Wired explains to us.
Indeed, owners must now deal with new constraints intended to encourage long-term rentals and fight against the housing shortage which is hitting New Yorkers and which has drives up rents dramatically. It has become impossible for many to reside in the Big Apple, even for those who work there. Accommodations rented on Airbnb and other platforms seem to be an option to increase this very insufficient real estate supply.
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Since September 5, short-term rentals (less than thirty days) are very regulated: two tenants maximum and the host must be able to prove that he also lives in the premises at the same time. You can therefore rent part of your home, but it is difficult to invest to do so. And if you are traveling with family, you will now have to turn to a hotel (or stay more than a month, if your paid leave allows it).
To meet these obligations, New York owners must register their property with municipal services. And since these owners have not fully understood the obligatory nature of the process, their tenants are invited to be reported on the town hall website potential offenders. The latter are exposed to fines ranging from 1,000 to 7,500 dollars (from 947 to 7,105 euros).
Apartment or house search (discreet)
The reactions were quick and a group of dissatisfied owners was formedRestore Homeowner Autonomy and Rights (RHOAR), in order to raise the voice of honest small owners who do not understand why they cannot make the use they want of their personal housing or of houses divided into several dwellings.
But most of the affected owners did not choose the lobbying route and immediately left the Airbnb platform – the number of short-term rentals increased from 22,434 in August to only 3,227 as of October 1– to offer their apartment or house on less regulated channels.
The classified ads site Craigslist and the social network Facebook have seen an influx of advertisements for accommodation billed by the week or by the night. The authorities wanted to force owners to turn to the long-term rental market, but they preferred the black market of tourist slum sellers, much more profitable despite the risks.
New Yorkers looking for an apartment will therefore not immediately benefit from these measures and visitors for their part will see hotel prices soar. For its part, Airbnb feels the tide is turning and is preparing to mourn its activity in New York. The company plans to diversify its services, for example by focusing on long-term rentals, but also the rental of cars and locations for pop-up restaurants.
While waiting for this New York regulation to take hold, Airbnb will focus on other cities, notably Paris on the eve of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The French capital was already seeing in 2022 the number of listings on Airbnb exceed rental offers for a long term. It is probably only a matter of months before such arrangements are also made in France. The City of Nice, which does not joke, has already bans key boxes in public spaces. Airbnb now knows what to expect.
2023-10-12 17:00:00
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