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> This decreases the total amount of apartments available for long-term renters. I don't see why this is necessarily bad. If short-term renters provide better

> This decreases the total amount of apartments available for long-term renters. I don't see why this is necessarily bad. If short-term renters provide better value to the owners, why should they be deprived of this opportunity?

dbmikus 9y ago
Because that decreases the supply of housing available for those that cannot afford secondary residencies. If there is not enough extra housing supply, you end up raising rent prices. If the market isn't creating enough housing for some reason or another, middle-class and lower-middle-class are left hung out to dry. This dichotomy bleeds over into arguments about welfare state, supply-side economics vs high upper income taxes, etc. You can argue that people should be able to create value and earn however possible, but I'm going to disagree with that view. I think regulation and limits are appropriate in some cases, this being one of them.
- chii 9y ago
  There's a lot of ifs in your statement. I don't necessarily think that raising real-estate prices is a bad thing. It will encourage building of more real-estate. Laws that precent so artificially should be abolished. Using regulation to prevent a private owner from exploiting his property to the maximum degree ought to only be reserved for matters of commons (such as environmental polution/degredation etc).
netsharc 9y ago
In a libertarian world, of course it's winner takes all. Luckily we still have some governments (boo, government, right?) that actually care about their cities, and they prefer long term tax-paying community-contributing residents, not short term tourists. So, it's mostly local governments making rules that disallow AirBNB-style short-term rentals. Maybe if the government just wants to have a Disneyland with rich apartment owners who rent everything out and zero long-term residents, they'd go along with AirBNB, but then these people wouldn't be in government, they'd work as resort managers. And they'd be voted out of office and be replaced with people from the community who actually care about said community. Also, tourists go to a city to experience its vibe, it'd be kinda interesting if they go somewhere and all they see are other tourists.

dbmikus 9y ago

Because that decreases the supply of housing available for those that cannot afford secondary residencies. If there is not enough extra housing supply, you end up raising rent prices. If the market isn't creating enough housing for some reason or another, middle-class and lower-middle-class are left hung out to dry. This dichotomy bleeds over into arguments about welfare state, supply-side economics vs high upper income taxes, etc. You can argue that people should be able to create value and earn however possible, but I'm going to disagree with that view. I think regulation and limits are appropriate in some cases, this being one of them.

chii 9y ago
There's a lot of ifs in your statement. I don't necessarily think that raising real-estate prices is a bad thing. It will encourage building of more real-estate. Laws that precent so artificially should be abolished. Using regulation to prevent a private owner from exploiting his property to the maximum degree ought to only be reserved for matters of commons (such as environmental polution/degredation etc).

netsharc 9y ago

In a libertarian world, of course it's winner takes all. Luckily we still have some governments (boo, government, right?) that actually care about their cities, and they prefer long term tax-paying community-contributing residents, not short term tourists. So, it's mostly local governments making rules that disallow AirBNB-style short-term rentals. Maybe if the government just wants to have a Disneyland with rich apartment owners who rent everything out and zero long-term residents, they'd go along with AirBNB, but then these people wouldn't be in government, they'd work as resort managers. And they'd be voted out of office and be replaced with people from the community who actually care about said community. Also, tourists go to a city to experience its vibe, it'd be kinda interesting if they go somewhere and all they see are other tourists.