The number of short-term rentals in New York City is outpacing the number of available apartments, putting a pinch on renters who are looking for space in a hot
The total number of short-term rentals of entire homes in the city’s five boroughs — those listed on Airbnb Inc. and Expedia Group Inc.’s Vrbo — is more than 13,000, according to third-party data tracker
Manhattan’s housing market is getting hotter by the month, with the median rent in April surging to $3,870 for new leases signed last month. There were 4,709 apartments to rent last month, down from 20,743 a year earlier, meaning landlords have the upper hand in negotiating with tenants looking for housing in the borough. The vacancy rate in Manhattan sat at just over 1.5% last month, the second-lowest level on record, according to appraiser Miller Samuel Inc.
Critics say that Airbnb’s business model makes homes unaffordable in large cities that are attractive for tourists. Airbnb specializes in urban markets, while its competitor Vrbo focuses more on whole vacation homes. New York has tightened some restrictions on short-term rentals, requiring platforms like Airbnb to share hosting and listing data with the city if they want to rent out their home for fewer than 30 days. New York also
Airbnb said the reality is different than the numbers suggest.
“As presented, the data provides an unfairly narrow look at rental unit availability in a portion of the city versus scraped short-term rental data for the entire city,” an Airbnb spokesperson said in a statement, adding that the company’s listing supply has decreased in the last two years. Most of Airbnb’s listings are concentrated in Manhattan. The number of entire home rentals peaked at 20,300 in 2019, according to AirDNA.
New York real estate publication Curbed reported the data
