News

The high cost of short-term rentals in New York City

Published: 30 January 2018
A new report from McGill Urban Planning professor David Wachsmuth and his team provides an analysis of Airbnb activity in New York City and the surrounding region in the last three years (September 2014 - August 2017). Relying on new methodologies to analyze big data, here are some of the findings:
 
  • Two thirds of revenue from likely illegal listings:  Entire-home/apartment listings account for 75% ($490 million) of total Airbnb revenue and represent 51% of total listings;
  • 13,500 Units of Lost Housing: Airbnb has removed between 7,000 and 13,500 units of housing from New York City’s long-term rental market;
  • $380 rent increase for the median New York tenant;
  • There are 4,700 private room listings that are in fact “ghost hotels” comprising many rooms in a single apartment;
  • Top 10% of Hosts earned 48% of all revenue last year while bottom 80% of hosts earned 32%;
  • Nearly three quarters of the population in neighborhoods at highest risk of Airbnb-induced gentrification across New York is nonwhite.
 
You can download the full report here.
 
“This report was commissioned by the Hotel Trades Council, AFL-CIO, and is cosponsored by a number of New York City community, housing and tenant advocacy organizations, including New York Communities For Change, Housing Conservation Coordinators, Goddard Riverside Law Project, St. Nick’s Alliance, Cooper Square Committee, Mobilization for Justice (formerly MFY Legal Services), West Side Neighborhood Association, and the Hell’s Kitchen Neighborhood Association. The authors from the School of Urban Planning, McGill University, are exclusively responsible for all analysis, findings, and conclusions.”
 
 
 
Back to top