Local governments push back on Airbnbs and other short-term rentals

• Leaders in cities like Atlanta and San Diego are advocating limits on short-term rental activity.
• Atlanta lawmakers want short-term rentals allowed and impose fines on landlords who violate city laws.
• Some owners of short-term rentals push back against government regulations.

Short-term rentals have become a hot commodity for real estate investors in cities such as San Diego, Detroit and Philadelphia during the pandemic, as low interest rates and federal stimulus dollars made it easier and cheaper to buy investment property.

In September, there were over 6.1 million short-term rental listings, up 19% from September 2019, according to AirDNABut some lawmakers and housing advocates say too many properties listed on short-term rental sites like Airbnb and Vrbo can make it harder for regular buyers and renters to compete for homes.

Investor-owned Airbnb rentals have become so ubiquitous that even The Onion has bucked the trend.

In some cities, government officials are trying to regulate the number of short-term rentals that investors can buy. New regulations have pitted municipalities against businesses and family investors by requiring short-term rental operators to be licensed or requiring landlords to live in the properties they plan to rent.

Cities strike back

This spring, the San Diego City Council passed an ordinance that would cap short-term rental properties at 1% of the local housing stock, or about 5,400 units. At the time, it was believed that there were over 12,000 short-term rental properties in the city, the La Jolla Light reported.

Steve Proehl

“The sad reality is that the housing stock in Ocean Beach has been decimated by short-term vacation rentals,” said San Diego resident Gretchen Newsom. told the San Diego Union-Tribune in March. “Over the years I have seen properties in our block being bought up by investors and turned into short term vacation rentals.”

Nearly 2,100 miles east, in Atlanta, the mayor Andre Dickens lobbied for greater regulation of the short-term rental industry. In March 2021, the Atlanta City Council passed a prescription require owners of short-term rentals to register with the city and imposing a fine of $500 for each violation committed by their tenants.

In the first quarter of 2021, according to Redfin statistics, about 22% of homes sold in Atlanta were purchased by investors, making it the second busiest market for investor purchases in the nation. These investors range from small local buyers looking to get into the short-term rental game to behemoths like Blackstone and other single family rental companies.

Courtesy of André Dickens

“We are using every resource at our disposal to ensure that people who call Atlanta home have access to quality, affordable housing, regardless of their ZIP code,” Dickens told Insider in October.

groups like the Metro Atlanta Short Term Rental Alliance challenged Atlanta’s ordinance on short-term rentals, and its enforcement was repeatedly delayed; it is now expected to come into force next March.

“A lot of the horror stories that come out are just a few bad apples,” said alliance president Rich Munroe. told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in Augustoutlining complaints the city had received about short-term rental homes.

The debate over short-term rentals in Atlanta is emblematic of similar debates in other cities. For example, voters in Colorado cities like Dillon, Aspen and Steamboat Springs this year approved measures to tax short-term rentals to help repeat buyers buy a home.

AirDNA says each of these cities has more than 1,000 short-term rentals, and each has a median home price above $1 million, according to the Colorado Association of Realtors. Steamboat Springs led the way with about 2,900 short-term rentals, according to AirDNA, compared to nearly 10,000 total homes in the city, according to census data.

An Airbnb representative told Insider in an emailed statement, “Over the past decade, Airbnb has worked with hundreds of cities to put in place regulations that balance the economic opportunities that rental properties create. term while protecting communities and supporting local tourism, and we are determined to do the same in the future.”

Residents feel the pressure

Residents of Joshua Tree, Calif., say they are feeling pressure from Airbnbs and similar rentals. Kerrie Bradsford, 43, who has lived there for more than 25 years, told the Guardian in September that long-time residents were confused by the rapid growth of short-term rentals in the area.

There are more than 1,300 short-term rentals in Joshua Tree, according to AirDNA, against a population of 7,700. Zillow indicates that the average home price in Joshua Tree rose 17.5%, to $434,000, over the past year.

In April, The New York Times described the flood of short-term rental investment in Joshua Tree like a gold rush and wondered if the housing market in the tricky desert region could support all of its Airbnb listings.

“Our neighborhood is no longer a neighborhood,” Bradsford told the Guardian. “Literally, we don’t know who might be next door tonight, or tomorrow night.”

While government officials seem keen to enact regulations, short-term rental owners like Steve Milo, CEO of VTrips, said regulations should come from and help short-term rental companies. rebuild their relationships with local communities.

“There have been far too many reports of vacation rentals keeping neighbors awake, causing trouble, or even being sites of serious crimes,” said Milo, whose company positions itself as a competitor to Airbnb and Vrbo, wrote in a paid opinion piece for Forbes in November. “This is a business-level issue; too many organizations have little regard for hospitality and owners.”

Editor’s note, December 9, 2022: This story has been updated to indicate that the company VTrips is positioning itself as a competitor to Airbnb and Vrbo.