A year after New York City began cracking down on illegal short-term apartment rentals, the number of Airbnb listings in the five boroughs plummeted by 85%, according to a Gothamist review of listings posted on the vacation rental giant’s website.
Fewer than 2,000 apartments in the five boroughs remain on the home-sharing site — down from more than 12,000 last August, just before the start of a new enforcement policy that effectively blocks payment for most units that are available to rent for less than 30 days.
The reduction is especially evident along the leafy brownstone blocks of Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, once a short-term listings hotbed. Nearly 1,000 apartments in the neighborhood were bookable on Airbnb for weekend jaunts and other short stays in the summer of 2023. Now, just 112 are still listed as short-term rentals, the data shows.
The new analysis of a 24-block section of Bed-Stuy that once boasted the highest concentration of Airbnb listings in the city shows a partial shift from short-term rentals to longer-term leases in the area — the goal of many supporters of stricter enforcement, who say the temporary lodgings were taking much-needed housing off the market. But many apartments in the historically Black neighborhood, where rents have spiked in recent years, still remain on Airbnb with 30-day minimum stay requirements that comply with city law.
Frankie Scott, a retired parks department administrator who bought her home on Hancock Street in 1984, is one of the homeowners who switched from hosting tourists to housing long-term tenants.
Scott, 75, said she started renting her third-floor unit to a young couple in December for $2,500 a month after she had been listing the apartment on Airbnb for several years.
Scott said she was reluctant to take on a yearlong tenant because past renters had stopped paying her, prompting her to take them to housing court. But she said she decided to work with a broker to find a new tenant because she wanted to continue earning money to supplement her pension and Social Security income.
“He said, ‘Are you willing to take a chance?’” Scott recalled of the broker. “I’m a gambler, so I said, ‘of course.’ And it’s paid off.”
She said she’s making about the same amount each month.
“I’m on fixed income now. I can’t get overtime to stretch the check because I have an additional bill,” Scott said. “That income is quite valuable.”
But Scott said the city went too far in restricting short-term rentals. She said some neighbors, including a cousin, are struggling to replace the missing income but aren’t yet renting units on yearlong leases.
“Unfortunately, she didn’t fare well with all of this,” Scott said of her cousin’s decision not to take in a longer-term tenant.
Local Law 18 was enacted last year and prohibits listings companies, like Airbnb and Vrbo, from processing payments to “hosts” who rent out entire units for less than 30 days without registering them with the city first.
The city’s Office of Special Enforcement approved 2,540 of the 6,753 registration applications it has received so far, according to agency data. At least 208 of the approved units are located in the City Council district that covers much of Bed-Stuy — the most in the city, according to the agency’s most recent breakdown of locations.
Christian Klossner, the executive director of the Office of Special Enforcement, said the new rules brought order to the listings market while addressing the quality of life concerns that come with temporary occupants.
“The short-term rental registration law has been pivotal in protecting the city’s housing stock from illicit activity and keeping New Yorkers safe,” Klossner said. “It has enhanced the enforceability of decades-old housing laws that many hosts violated and from which online companies handsomely profited.”
But the city doesn’t track how many units have gone from short-term rentals to long-term leases since the new policy began. Airbnb officials and opponents of the stricter enforcement say the laws have had a minimal effect on bringing apartments back to the rental market.
The push to limit short-term listings coincides with New York City’s severe apartment shortage. Less than 1% of apartments priced below $2,400 a month are available to rent, according to the city’s most recent housing survey. Housing prospects are especially tough for families since the vast majority of newly constructed affordable units are studios or one-bedrooms. And several neighborhoods aren’t adding many new affordable homes at all.
Back to Bed-Stuy
Last year, Gothamist reported on a 24-block section of Bed-Stuy with more Airbnbs than anywhere else in the city. The tract, which runs from Malcolm X Boulevard to Marcy Avenue, had 87 Airbnb listings in the summer of 2023, mostly located in stately brownstones.
Gothamist went back to that same section of Bed-Stuy to find out how the 87 Airbnbs are being used a year later.
At least 10 were listed on the apartment rental website StreetEasy. Their monthly rental prices ranged from $2,100 for a studio on Halsey Street to $9,200 for an entire three-story building on Madison Street. One “sun-soaked sanctuary” on Hancock Street — advertised as a three-and-a-half month rental priced at $5,000 a month — was last rented early in the summer.
Median rents have surged in the neighborhood, nearly doubling between 2006 and 2022, according to a recent report from NYU’s Furman Center.
Just 13 of the properties are still listed as short-term rentals on Airbnb’s website, while 34 remain on the site but can only be rented for periods of at least 30 days — the minimum stay allowed under New York City housing law. Four had switched to individual room rentals, which are exempt from the rule. Another 26 no longer appeared among the listings.
Airbnb is still urging city lawmakers to adjust the regulations to allow small homeowners to rent out units for less than 30 days.
Nathan Rotman, Airbnb’s Northeast U.S. regional lead, said New York City’s stringent rules prevent visitors from renting an apartment near a hospital or owners from making extra money by hosting a guest when they go away. Rotman said the restrictions haven’t led to lower rents or more vacant apartments citywide, based on data from the website ApartmentList.
“What we would hope we could achieve with New York is allowing regular people to rent out their homes like they can in every other major city around the country,” Rotman said.
An advocacy group representing one- and two-family homeowners who say they’re affected by the short-term rental rules is also trying to appeal to lawmakers for changes.
Restore Homeowner Autonomy and Rights — also known as RHOAR — released a survey of group members showing that their earnings fell by nearly $40,000 over the past year due to the stricter laws.
“While we firmly believe the city can and should regulate short-term rentals and it was right to stop bad actors, [the law] also delivered a financial blow to the backbone of NYC’s neighborhoods – one- and two-family homeowners,” said RHOAR member Gia Sharp in a statement.
Property owners renting out their apartments to permanent tenants in Bed-Stuy can still earn decent income in the neighborhood, said Michael Keith Davis, a real estate agent who owns a home in Bed-Stuy.
Davis represents other owners in the area examined by Gothamist and said homeowners are moving on from the short-term rental game, even if it means they can no longer earn money “hand over fist.”
“It’s just not a conversation in New York City anymore for my property owners, whether I’m helping them manage their property or renting their units,” Davis said.
Davis said he recently helped a friend on Madison Street find a tenant for a yearlong lease at $3,400-a-month. It’s less than the owner was making before, but enough to cover most of the mortgage and property taxes.
“It’s opened up market share,” Davis said of the enforcement measures. “Regular people who needed an apartment to live in have had dramatically fewer options and now they have options.”
He said he thinks the crackdown is also cooling speculation because “large private equity groups gobbling up brownstones” in the past can no longer operate them as short-term rentals.
Chrisette Mignott, a Brooklyn broker born and raised in Bed-Stuy, said she’s represented four owners who have made the change from short-term listings to long-term leases.
“The money, you can’t compare it with Airbnb,” Mignott said. “But a lot of owners have made that transition from short term to long term.”