🎯 STRisker: Bulletin - New York City, NY
Two Years Later, NYC’s Airbnb Ban Isn’t Lowering Rents
Airbnb Ban Sparks Tug-of-War Over NYC Housing
Back in 2023, New York City promised its Airbnb crackdown would free up homes and ease rent pressures. Fast forward to today, and rents are steeper than ever, vacancies are scraping bottom, and the city is caught in a new kind of tug-of-war.
The law at the center of it all, Local Law 18, outlawed most unhosted short-term rentals and forced platforms like Airbnb to all but disappear. At its peak, the city estimated 38,500 units were wiped off the map. But many never converted back into long-term apartments, and experts say the change barely moved the needle in a housing market with over a million rentals.
The results: Manhattan’s vacancy rate dropped to 2.45%, and median rent reached $4,700, a record. Housing analyst Jonathan Miller says affordability never improved because STRs were only a small slice of the pie. Airbnb agrees, claiming the ban “only made the affordability crisis worse” while cutting off income for regular hosts trying to pay bills.
City officials see things differently. Christian Klossner, head of the Office of Special Enforcement, insists the law is still vital. “We can’t afford to lose a single unit of housing when there’s a huge vacancy problem,” he said. Supporters, including tenant unions and the influential Hotel Trades Council, argue the crackdown restored order and protected neighborhoods. Hotels, for their part, are enjoying a boom with higher rates and fuller bookings.
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But the politics are messy. Airbnb has poured millions into lobbying, hoping to sway the next administration. Ads are targeting progressive frontrunner Zohran Mamdani, who wants to freeze rents, even as Airbnb signals it’s open to working with him if he wins. On the flip side, advocates have spent nearly $2 million defending the ban, warning that loosening rules would drain even more apartments from the housing pool.
For New Yorkers, the law brought peace from late-night tourist noise but no relief at the rent check. As elections loom and the World Cup nears, the battle over short-term rentals is morphing into one of the city’s sharpest housing showdowns yet.
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