Greater than 20 months in the past, New York Metropolis handed Native Legislation 18 (LL18) with the promise of enhancing housing availability and affordability. It has failed on that promise. New information exhibits New Yorkers have skilled the alternative impact: rents have surged – with median Manhattan rents breaking $4,000 for the primary time and lease rising greater than 4 % in boroughs like Brooklyn and Queens – whereas emptiness charges stay unchanged. On the identical time, the lack of earnings for working-class New Yorkers who as soon as hosted short-term leases has impacted not solely their capability to make ends meet, but in addition small companies harm by fewer lodging and declining customer spending of their neighborhoods. With a greater than 90 percent drop in short-term leases following LL18, group leaders are actually voicing concern that the legislation is doing extra hurt than good at a time of rising financial uncertainty.
Manhattan lease breaks $4,000 as housing provide stays stalled
For the primary time on report, the median lease throughout all of Manhattan has surpassed $4,000 per 30 days, in keeping with StreetEasy – a 4.1 % improve for the reason that legislation took impact. Citywide, the upward development continues with rents rising round 5 %, together with in Brooklyn and Queens, cementing New York Metropolis’s place as one of many most expensive cities in the world.
Lease will increase in New York additionally proceed to outpace the nationwide common and peer cities like Boston, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.
Regardless of the regulation geared toward releasing up housing, the town’s emptiness charge stays caught at 3.2 % – among the many lowest within the nation and nearly unchanged for the reason that legislation took impact, in keeping with data from Apartment List and a brand new report from CoStar. With extra renters competing for a similar restricted provide of properties, affordability stays out of attain for a lot of New Yorkers.
On the identical time, the deal with short-term leases has distracted from the town’s core housing problem: not sufficient new provide. CoStar data shows condominium building begins dropped greater than 70 % in Q1 2025 in comparison with the town’s 10-year common, marking 5 consecutive quarterly declines. And whereas constructing slows, the town’s inhabitants continues to grow.
“NYC merely doesn’t have sufficient properties to fulfill demand. However as an alternative of constructing extra properties, native households who host have been scapegoated. Not solely has this failed to enhance the inexpensive housing disaster, it has reduce important earnings for 1000’s of on a regular basis New Yorkers. Whether or not you’re a neighborhood attempting to make lease or a visiting household on the lookout for a spot to remain, LL18 has undeniably made New York Metropolis much less inexpensive for everybody.”
– Nathan Rotman, Coverage Director, Airbnb
Resort charges hit $320 as guests are funneled to Midtown
As short-term rental listings have plummeted, resort costs have surged. The 12-month common nightly charge for a resort room in New York Metropolis reached a report $320 – up 5.4 % year-over-year and greater than double the nationwide common, in keeping with CoStar1. Even the top of the NYC resort lobbying group admits that LL18 could have led to fewer would-be guests who’re capable of afford a visit to the town.
With fewer inexpensive choices, vacationers are more and more clustered in costly Midtown inns, the place most lodging are concentrated, or pressured to remain outdoors of the town altogether. Earlier than the short-term rental legislation, company stayed throughout all 5 boroughs – serving to to disperse tourism {dollars} and foot visitors to neighborhoods all through the town. Now, community leaders say neighborhoods like Crown Heights, Astoria, and the South Bronx are seeing fewer guests and fewer native spending.
The resort business’s decade-old playbook to affect housing coverage
For greater than a decade, massive resort chains have unabashedly been the first supporters and defenders of the restrictions present in LL18. Below the guise of defending housing affordability, the resort foyer’s actual motivations are apparent: limiting competitors and consolidating the market to profit themselves fairly than on a regular basis New Yorkers and guests. In New York Metropolis, the resort business has spent tens of millions lobbying towards short-term leases within the title of defending housing, whereas bankrolling the so-called grassroots group “Tenants Not Vacationers” which opposes any adjustments to short-term rental legal guidelines.
This sample isn’t distinctive to New York. All world wide, in cities from Barcelona to Los Angeles, resort lobbies have pushed related restrictions beneath the banner of housing affordability, all whereas benefiting from lowered competitors and rising resort common day by day charges. Behind the rhetoric is a transparent technique: fund questionable housing studies, create and fund so-called advocacy teams that declare to signify residents, spend tens of millions backing candidates for public workplace, and affect laws to cut back competitors. The results have been lucrative.
Native organizations sound the alarm
In New York Metropolis, group and enterprise leaders throughout the 5 boroughs are warning that Native Legislation 18 is hurting, not serving to, New Yorkers, particularly in mild of a recent report projecting that the outer boroughs may lose as much as $1.6 billion in customer spending.
In a joint letter to the City Council, chambers of commerce from all 5 boroughs criticized the legislation’s “overly restrictive” guidelines as dangerous to small companies, citing as much as a 70 % drop in foot visitors in some neighborhoods. They urged lawmakers to undertake “commonsense updates,” together with permitting hosts to lease their properties whereas away and lifting strict occupancy limits.
Different voices throughout the town are sounding the alarm:
- The New York Urban League urged the Metropolis to reform strict short-term rental guidelines, that are disproportionately hurting Black and Latino owners who depend on the earnings from sharing their properties to remain of their communities and construct generational wealth.
- The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce has known as the legislation “deeply damaging to our borough’s small companies and working-class hosts…hurting [Brooklyn’s] residents, small companies, and native financial system.”
- The Dominican American Chamber of Commerce described the coverage as “hurting Latino small companies.”
- The New York State Latino Restaurant Bar & Lounge Association famous that “short-term rental company typically convey our eating places to life – and their absence is being felt nightly.”
- Chamber of Progress stated the legislation’s influence is obvious: “The most important winner was the resort business. Who had been the losers? Nearly everybody else.”
- Alicia Glenn, former NYC Deputy Mayor for Housing, stated that she by no means noticed information indicating that short-term leases had been considerably contributing to the housing disaster and that they “opened up journey to lots of of 1000’s of people that by no means would have had the chance to come back to New York.”
Collectively, these voices replicate a rising consensus: it’s time for New York Metropolis to vary its legislation.
A path ahead that places New Yorkers first
Native Legislation 18 hasn’t improved housing availability or affordability – nevertheless it has pushed up costs for residents and guests, harm small companies and native resident hosts, and handed extra energy to inns.
A proposed invoice provides a optimistic step ahead in making the town extra accessible to vacationers, with out eradicating a single housing unit from the long-term market. A coalition of likeminded teams and outerborough owners proceed to push for 3 modest commonsense adjustments:
- Enhance financial alternative for New Yorkers: Permitting residents in one- and two-family properties to earn further earnings whereas they’re out of city
- Profit households: Rising the variety of company from two to 4
- Enhance privateness: Permitting owners to limit sure personal areas from visitor entry to extend security.
“Airbnb helps considerate, balanced guidelines that shield long-term housing and provides New Yorkers the power to responsibly share their properties once more in order that they’ll afford to remain of their properties. It’s time for commonsense updates to Native Legislation 18 in order that it really works for the town, vacationers, and the companies and residents that depend on tourism spending.”
– Nathan Rotman, Coverage Director, Airbnb
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