Lack of short-term rental license applicants surprises some as deadline approaches – NBC 7 San Diego

The city of San Diego planned to hold a lottery to limit the number of short-term vacation rental licenses available for more than 20 days per year. Now, however, it seems possible that everyone who applied will receive a license.

The City of San Diego passed new rules that would require all short-term vacation rental hosts to obtain a license even if they only plan to rent their home or part of their home one day per year. The city planned to hold a licensing lottery for hosts who wanted to rent their entire homes short-term for more than 20 days a year and for people who wanted to have a short-term vacation rental in Mission Beach. . The objective was to limit the number of short-term seasonal rentals in the city to 1% of the 540,000 dwellings.

“We have a housing crisis in San Diego,” said Venus Molina, chief of staff to council member Jennifer Campbell. “It’s very expensive and we don’t have a lot of houses to rent or buy, so we wanted to make sure we put housing back on the market for people who want to live here. We wanted to control this particular platform because it was out of control, you know? People just did what they wanted, so we wanted to make sure there was some control.

Prior to the new rules, the city auditor estimated that there were around 16,000 entire homes that were used as short-term rentals for more than 20 days a year. The city planned to limit the number of licenses for short-term vacation rentals of more than 20 days per year to 5,400.

The deadline for license applications is Wednesday at 5 p.m. However, on the eve of the deadline, there were fewer than 5,400 applications, Molina said, so it was unclear if the city should even hold a lottery.

“Well, right now our demands are not as high as we thought, so everyone might be able to get a license,” Molina said.

Molina said she didn’t know why the number of applications was so low; she suspected that many people were unaware that they needed a permit. However, Molina had warned the hosts that there would be consequences for not having a license.

“If people don’t get, you know, a license and they’re still operating, we have agreements with Airbnb, Expedia and the platforms, so they’ll be taken off the platforms and they won’t be able to operate,” Molina said. . .

Enforcement of the new short-term vacation rental rules will not begin until May 1, 2023. The city can issue warnings, citations of $1,000, or civil penalties of up to $10,000 for violating the rules. Applications for permits to rent a room in short-term accommodation or an entire accommodation for less than 20 days per year will be accepted by the city on a rolling basis. All licenses are valid for two years.

If a lottery for short-term vacation rentals throughout the house for more than 20 days per year is held, it will take place on December 16. Preference will be given to hosts who have been operating on the platforms with few complaints for a long time.