5 ms·
> It's hard to be sure I'm staying with a local making some cash off their spare room, rather than someone "farming" a bunch of cheap properties. The big probl
by mattlutze 10y ago
> It's hard to be sure I'm staying with a local making some cash off their spare room, rather than someone "farming" a bunch of cheap properties.
The big problem in a lot of places is that these properties are far from cheap.
I live in Stuttgart, one of the most expensive real estate markets in Germany (and maybe Europe?). House/apartment prices continue to climb past the level of absurdity for most residents, and when new "cheap" properties, for the low price of 250-350,000 Eur, hit the market, they're often recently snapped up by wealthy property speculators in the city who turn them around and run them as Airbnb properties at 150-300 Eur/night. It prices folks with middle class incomes right out of the city.
It's to the point that the state is planning laws that would prohibit short-term leasing schemes for whole flats if the flat isn't zoned as commercial property. People will still be able to rent out a room in their flat, but it will have to be a place where they live.
- ethanbond 10y agoNew York State has laws like that. They're awfully clumsy, as laws tend to be, and prevent me from posting my entire apartment while I'm in Europe for two weeks. I think there are more specific ways to tackle this problem legislatively like limiting to a certain number of nights rented per rolling 6-12 month period.
- jacalata 10y agoClumsy laws require less intrusion to enforce. A flat ban on short term rentals means they can run through airbnb listings and see who is breaking the law. A rolling 12 month period requires that they track each night you rented your place out.
- ethanbond 10y agoOr Airbnb can save its business model by cooperating with the law and with common sense and simply forbid people from renting beyond that?
- jacalata 10y agoIf you were satisfied with only enforcing it against people renting solely on airbnb, then sure. Seems like it would be easy to work around though.
- ethanbond 10y agoOr they simply have the law as they do now such that it'd be illegal to rent your apartment out through a service that doesn't cooperate in this way.
- mattlutze 10y agoThe regulatory compliance costs would put an undue burden on smaller players to the market though and end up stifling new entrants.
- ryuker16 10y agoThey changed the laws to that in a lot of places and airbnb aided new york in removing people renting entire blocks to turn into ghetto hotels.