The appearance of applications that allow owners to rent their homes or parts of them to travelers and tourists has become a common option for everyone who travels the world and for those who own a home, especially in large metropolises where stays are usually more expensive.
But it also has a downside, disadvantageous. And it is that before the possibility of charging more expensive rents for short stays, and of a greater availability of housing by not committing to long contracts, the owners decided to offer their properties in these applications -the best known of them is Airbnb- and withdraw them from the traditional rental marketwhich by shrinking raised prices for traditional renters.
Faced with this narrowing of the offer of traditional rentals, the governments of numerous cities have come out to impose restrictions to Airbnb and similar apps. The last of them is that of an emblematic capital of the world: new york city.
From the September 5 The Short-Term Rental Registration Act, which was passed in 2022 and established rules for registering as a short-term rental, will take effect.
The entry into force of the law stood firm after an American judge in early August dismissed an Airbnb lawsuit against the city of New York for the restrictions that the big city had established for tourist and temporary rentals.
Airbnb sued New York in June and managed to postpone until September 5 the entry into force of the legislation, which seeks to regulate activity in the midst of the housing crisis and obliges hosts to register with the authorities.
Judge Arlene Bluth, in Manhattan state court, dismissed Airbnb’s claim, finding “rational” that New York requires hosts to register and control the legality of the accommodation it offers, something that the company came to describe as a “de facto veto” to its activity.
New York was originally going to impose the short-term rental restrictions on Airbnb in May, but pushed them back to July due to staffing issues, and then to September due to the lawsuit.
With the new legislation, the city prevents entire apartments from being rented for less than 30 daysbut it does allow rents of less than that term if the host is present in the accommodation and has no more than two visitors, a rule that applies not only to Airbnb, but also to other platforms.
With the new measures, the city requires that hosts register with a special office of the Mayor, something that for Airbnb and its clients is a slow and privacy-invasive process.
According to Airbnb’s lawsuit, short-term rentals in New York City alone accounted for a net turnover of 85 million dollars in 2022. The company had revenues of $8.4 billion in that year.
According to Airbnb’s latest financial results, published a month ago, in the second quarter of 2023 the company had a record number of active accommodations, 7 million worldwide, and achieved a profit of 650 million dollars, 72% more than in the same period of the previous year.
D.D.
2023-08-27 19:33:54
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