A ‘Black Market’ for Short-Term Rentals Grows in NYC

After New York City cracked down on short-term rentals, implementing new rules that dramatically shrank the supply of Airbnbs and other STRs, owners are using social media and other websites to rent out apartments, reports Kim Velsey in Curbed. “The world made by Airbnb still exists, after all, even if many of the listings are no longer on the site. In the first few weeks of the ban, which was intended to reduce the number of illegal short-term sublets, around 80 percent of the units were taken off the platform.”

The “ghost Airbnb market” could bring its own negative impacts. “As one person on a listserve noted, Venmoing a stranger money takes a lot of trust, a virtue that travelers could mostly outsource to Airbnb in the past.” 

Meanwhile, Velsey notes that long-term listings on the Airbnb platform are up by 37 percent, seemingly achieving the intended effect of the new legislation, which aimed to bring more housing units back on the city’s notoriously expensive long-term rental market. In May of 2022, Airbnb listings outnumbered available apartments in the city.