According to statistics released on Wednesday, the city of New York approved slightly over 400 short-term rentals as part of a crackdown on unlicensed listings on Airbnb and other booking sites.
The city’s Office of Special Enforcement said it authorized just 405 of the 4,624 applications it got from landlords and tenants attempting to legally register their units on Airbnb, Vrbo, and other sites in the months after the city created a registration portal in March. The organization returned 758 applications to applicants for revisions or further information while rejecting 214 entries. A significant number of applications, however, have yet to be reviewed.
New restrictions that went into effect earlier this month ban businesses like Airbnb from handling payments for those short-term postings unless the host has permission from the city via the registration system. Due to significant personnel shortages at OSE, New Yorkers who hold short-term rental listings have complained about lengthy waiting periods for application decisions as the new regulations are applied.
According to the OSE report, the majority of the applications were deficient in some way, and the submittants were given the opportunity to send in a new form.
A state judge last month dismissed the lawsuits brought by Airbnb and certain property owners to challenge the new regulations, while also criticizing the city for the “glacial pace” of registrations.
Listings for stays of less than 30 days are prohibited by state and local rules unless the “host” is physically present. However, before the crackdown took effect last month, there were more than 10,000 short-term rentals in New York City.
Housing advocates and city officials said the new regulations would compel landlords to re-rent their flats during a severe housing scarcity as opposed to utilizing them to house tourists and other transient residents. Property owners, on the other hand, are concerned about the future of short-term rentals in the city, due to the low number of permits and the rising number of applications.
