The battle between Airbnb and New York continues. The mayor of the city, Bill de Blasio, on Monday signed a municipal decree obliging the short-term housing rental platform to communicate the list of its lessors. The decree was voted in the city council on July 18, with 45 votes for and 0 against. It will take effect in 180 days. This new regulation, which applies to all short-term accommodation sites and not just Airbnb, requires operators to provide a list of all transactions made for accommodation in New York. The goal: to enable the municipality to more effectively enforce New York State laws, which prohibit renting accommodation for less than 30 days – unless the host is present.
The platforms incur a fine of at least 1,500 dollars per month (approximately 1,300 euros) and per accommodation in case of violation. On the owners side, rental companies will be liable to penalties of up to 7,500 dollars (approximately 6,500 euros).
“We are disappointed that the mayor of Blasio has chosen to sign this decree supported by the hotel industry rather than defending the New York middle class who rely on housing sharing to get by,” commented the head of Airbnb Regulator for the Northeastern United States, Josh Meltzer.
Housing crisis in New York
Airbnb claims more than 40,000 rental properties in New York. According to figures from the California company provided to Wall Street Journal, “77% of hosts use the money generated from the rental to help them stay in their accommodation”, by paying taxes for example. Still according to Airbnb, “an average host [à New York] welcomes 60 tenants per year and earns more than 6,300 dollars “. But several elected officials in New York have been demanding this decree for many months, saying that the emergence of the tourism giant had significantly worsened the housing crisis in “Big Apple”, the city’s nickname. It thus had the effect of moving apartments out of the ordinary rental stock – which were no longer rented except to passing visitors, most often tourists.
New York is not the first city to take such an initiative. Airbnb’s birthplace, San Francisco, where its headquarters are still located, made an agreement with the platform in May 2017, after the company sued the California city. The text provides for a transfer of information similar to that planned in New York. These attempts to regulate the global tourism juggernaut are also developing widely in Europe. Starting with France, Airbnb’s second world market behind the United States.
Global attempts at regulation
The Alur law (access to housing and renovated town planning), adopted in 2014, then the 2016 law for a digital republic, set the general framework: 120 nights maximum per year and per accommodation, with the obligation to request a registration number for any owner-lessor. The fines were reinforced in June by the Elan law (Evolution of housing, development and digital). They range from 5,000 to 10,000 euros in fines for owners and up to 50,000 euros for platforms in the event of non-compliance with the 120 days per year.
“The fines are disproportionate: 5,000 euros for a host who posts 124 nights instead of 120, that seems excessive to me”, commented last June to The gallery Emmanuel Marill, France and Belgium director of Airbnb. Before continuing: “We must be careful not to over-regulate, at the risk of creating barriers to entry for individuals.”
In Spain, as the Balearic island Palma de Mallorca is about to ban the platform, Madrid intends to make 95% of apartments unavailable for rent on Airbnb by the end of 2018. In Valencia, since July, the city wants to ban it to apartments located in floors. There would then be only the ground floors or the first floors. “We can find common ground with communities and states by being collaborative. Communication and co-construction are key.”, affirmed Emmanuel Marill.
The small, good-natured startup that has become a global short-term vacation rental giant, celebrates its 10th anniversary this month. In a decade, the platform has recorded nearly 300 million bookings – triggering very sharp tensions with the hotel industry, which accuses it of unfair competition, and with the cities, which complain about the real estate pressure exerted by Airbnb. However, Californian society does not intend to stop there. She table one billion users per year by 2028.
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