Welcome to The Sunday Morning Post! Thanks for reading. If you enjoy what you see here, please consider sharing with friends and colleagues. In the face of rapidly rising rents and limited new housing supply especially in the lower and middle tiers of the housing spectrum, New York City enacted strict restrictions against AirBNB’s and other short-term rentals in January 2022. But whether it was from a lack of conviction behind said regulations, disagreement about possible enforcement mechanisms, lack of staff to actually enforce the provisions, or from simply wanting to provide existing short-term rental owners with a fair amount of time to adjust, the agreed-upon restrictions were not enforced.
Seems to me that the problem is with the assumption that if an apartment is not listed for short term rental that it will be listed for long term rental. That's a proposition that should be given a reality check. Elsewhere most of the opposition to AirBNB comes from other proprietors in the short-term accommodation market like motels and hotels. Protecting one seller from the competition offered by another seller limits consumer choice while enabling higher prices to be charged. Comes under the heading of a restraint on trade. Adam Smith observed that: 'People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.'
The fundamental problem relates to supply, that in turn relates to the difficulty attached to redeveloping an old city and the cost of travel, and amount of time lost in travel when a city gets too large. That results in price inflation. The remedy is to allow the building of an alternative settlement elsewhere. Good luck with that because those with a stake in the city will be against it and they will have the planning fraternity in their pocket.
Seems to me that the problem is with the assumption that if an apartment is not listed for short term rental that it will be listed for long term rental. That's a proposition that should be given a reality check. Elsewhere most of the opposition to AirBNB comes from other proprietors in the short-term accommodation market like motels and hotels. Protecting one seller from the competition offered by another seller limits consumer choice while enabling higher prices to be charged. Comes under the heading of a restraint on trade. Adam Smith observed that: 'People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.'
The fundamental problem relates to supply, that in turn relates to the difficulty attached to redeveloping an old city and the cost of travel, and amount of time lost in travel when a city gets too large. That results in price inflation. The remedy is to allow the building of an alternative settlement elsewhere. Good luck with that because those with a stake in the city will be against it and they will have the planning fraternity in their pocket.