The case for reforms to New York’s restrictions on short-term rentals

As New York City continues to face a shortage of affordable housing, a new Airbnb commissioned poll finds 81% of New Yorkers believe the city is going in the wrong direction when it comes to housing affordability. The survey done by Clarafy Research had 1,000 registered New York City voters participate between Aug. 27 and Sept. 3, with a margin of error of 3.1%. 

Airbnb has compared the findings to a similar poll taken earlier this year by the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, to try to bolster support for Intro 1107, a City Council bill that would reform the city’s two-year-old Local Law 18, which the short-term rental platform argues almost completely bans the short-term rental industry. 

Among the requirements of Local Law 18, short-term rental owners must register their properties with the Mayor's Office of Special Enforcement to legally host guests for stays of 30 days or less, and can only host a maximum of two guests. An owner also must reside in the property and share it with the guests during their stay. 

The city argued such restrictions were necessary to counter the proliferation of illegal short-term rentals through Airbnb and other platforms, which it said was worsening the housing crisis and driving up rents. The blame went to abusers of short-term rentals who don’t reside in their properties. Once Local Law 18 was implemented, Airbnb saw listings drop in New York City from about 22,000 down to 3,227, the Daily News reported. Proponents of the law, including the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council and housing advocates, heralded the decline as strengthening their argument for a crackdown on illegal short-term rentals.

Meanwhile, the city’s affordable housing crisis has worsened. A survey released last year by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development found the number of available, habitable homes in the city dropped to 1.4% of the total rentable housing stock. That’s the lowest since 1968, the year before New York passed its landmark rent stabilization law aimed at protecting tenants from sky-high rent increases. There were only 33,000 available units citywide out of a total of 2.35 million habitable units in the first half of 2023, according to the report.

Airbnb argues that its poll findings show New Yorkers are in support of proposed reforms to Local Law 18, which include allowing more guests and allowing an owner to rent out their primary residence while they are away. When given the details on Local Law 18 and the proposed reforms, the poll found 80% of voters support the passage of Intro 1107, which is now before the City Council. Among other findings, 84% of male voters supported the bill and 83% of voters between the ages of 18 and 44. The poll even acknowledged how much affordability has played into this year’s mayoral race, finding that 82% of New Yorkers who said they would vote for Democratic Primary winner Zohran Mamdani support reforms. The poll did not ask about the other mayoral candidates, including former Mayor Andrew Cuomo, Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa and Mayor Eric Adams, who had not yet suspended his long-shot independent campaign when the poll was taken.

City & State caught up with Airbnb policy chief Michael Blaustein to discuss the results of the poll and why the platform believes the reforms will lead to more housing affordability. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

What was your conclusion from the poll? 

So we're thrilled that this poll confirms a previous poll that was released by the (Brooklyn) Chamber of Commerce over the summer, that there is widespread and growing support to have reforms to Local Law 18, and that all New Yorkers, regardless of age or neighborhood, understand the misgivings and failures of Local Law 18, and that they know that there's an affordability crisis, and they see short term rentals as a tool to fixing that affordability crisis.This is really driven by young voters, so we're very excited to see that.

Your poll found that 81% of New Yorkers believe the city is going in the wrong direction when it comes to housing affordability. How do you see that strengthening your argument for reforms to Local Law 18?

Let's go back two years ago. The main push and promise of Local Law 18, which saw 92% of Airbnb listings removed, was to address the affordability crisis. The sponsors of the legislation and advocates said, “Well, if we do this and pretty much get rid of short-term rentals, there'll be all of this vacancy that opens up, and rents will go down, and the problem will be solved.” Now, two years later, we have probably one of the biggest case studies in the world of what happens when you do that, and let's just look at the numbers you have. 

Rents have gone up 8% in those two years, compared to about 3.5% nationally. The vacancy rate has remained unchanged at 3%. New Yorkers are dealing with a higher cost of living that's 72% higher than the national average, and these communities, especially in the outer boroughs, have lost billions of dollars in economic spending that local guests spend when they come to the various neighborhoods that make New York City great. I would also just highlight that's why we have organizations like the New York State Latino Restaurant Association, the Chamber of Commerce supporting us. We have housing groups. We recently brought on the NAACP of Jamaica and Brooklyn. These are folks who are dealing with the economy and the affordability crisis day after day, and understand that we need to be doing everything we can to be giving more money in people's pocketbooks.

How do you respond to push back from the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council and housing advocates, who argue that Local Law 18 prevents the abuse of unregulated housing throughout the city?

So we're not opposed to smart, sensible regulations, and what we are saying is, you told us that if you pass this law, things were going to get better. Ninety-two percent of the listings have gone offline in those two years, and the problem has gotten worse.

From your perspective, how has Local Law 18 made things worse? 

About 75% of our hosts, who are using Airbnbs, are actually using Airbnbs to keep up with the cost of living. So Local Law 18, which is one of the most restrictive laws in the country, removed an ability for people to short-term rental their house to earn extra income. And at the time of when this was passed, even the bill sponsors said that this bill is not meant to impact one- and two-family homes. So we are simply asking for, and not just us, but a coalition of civil rights groups, housing groups – we even have hotel owners that are supporting this bill – 

Is to allow one- and two-family home owners to short-term rental their home, while they are not at home, so that they can keep up with the increased cost of living. We're not saying to get rid of the law. We're not saying to get rid of regulations. We're saying have sensible reforms for people to be able to stay in their home and maintain themselves as long time New Yorkers.

How do you prevent people then from buying properties they don’t use as residences, but do strictly for hosting Airbnb? 

So I'm very glad that you asked that question. If you read the proposed law (Intro 1107) it specifically references permanent occupants. You cannot, under this new proposal, Airbnb or short-term rental if there's not a permanent occupant in that home. So this idea that we're going to be inviting in, you know, speculative purchasing is completely untrue and fear-mongering. This law was carefully crafted based upon the concerns of homeowners and tenants to ensure that this would not take one housing unit offline.

How would Airbnb balance the ease of restrictions with safeguards preventing bad actors from turning units into de facto hotels?

This law simply makes very minor changes. It says only one- and two-family homes, where there's a permanent occupant, can be used as short-term rental when they're not at the residence. It increases the guest cap from two to four people, so you can allow families to travel together and then allow locks on doors. Right now, you can't have a lock on any door when you're short term renting which is really a privacy concern for individuals, which makes it more unlikely for people to want a short-term rental and get the economic benefits from it. 

I would also add that the Office of Special Enforcement is a very robust regulator, that is, frequently working with us and engaging with us. I'm very confident in their abilities to ensure that people follow the law.