New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo, passed a new law, Bill A8704C, that will make home-sharing sites, such as AirBnB, unable to rent entire homes or apartments.
The fines will be anywhere from 1000 to 7500 dollars, and the listing will be removed.
New York City’s apartment and hotel prices are already unaffordable for many residents and tourists. Many AirBnB hosts simply use it to help pay for rent itself, not to make extra income.
Hosts often rent out their entire home or unit for a short-term stay when then they are absent, for example when they are on a business trip or studying abroad, to pay for their rent. Under this new law, these people will lose money from their empty apartment. This could make them lose their apartment.
Because tourism is a big industry in NYC, proponents of the bill believes the city loses revenue in taxes from these “illegal hotels.”
An alternative solution is to apply occupancy tax for home-sharing hosts who are renting out entire apartments or people who have multiple listings. People who are renting out only a room to supplement their income should not be taxed. In this solution, the government will generate revenue from taxes and hosts will be able to afford their rents.
Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/22/technology/new-york-passes-law-airbnb.html?_r=0
http://www.businessinsider.com/gov-cuomo-signed-new-york-airbnb-bill-2016-10
Assemly.state.ny.us
By Harjap Kaur, Yulia McClamrock, Katherine Ward