Hey, there! Log in / Register
Airbnb drops suit against Boston, to work with city to register legal short-term rental units
By adamg on Thu, 08/29/2019 - 11:26pm
The mayor's office announced today that Boston and Airbnb are now best buds and that the company will require all of its Boston hosts to register with the city by Dec. 1 or get dropped from the platform.
The agreement means Airbnb units in Boston will only be allowed in buildings where the owner lives - with the goal of keeping investors from buying up swaths of city apartments and evicting tenants to rent rooms to visitors.
Under the agreement, Airbnb next week will turn on functionality on its Web site to let Boston hosts submit their city of Boston registration numbers.
Hosts will have to pay an annual city fee of between $50 and $200, depending on whether the Airbnb listing is for a single room or for a "whole unit," for example, a floor in a triple decker. Any units in buildings facing city health or building violations will be stricken from the city short-term rental list - and taken off Airbnb.
In addition to barring investor-owned units, the city regulation prohibits renting out units in city housing projects or which are subject to income restrictions under city affordable-housing rules.
Neighborhoods:
Topics:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Looks good on paper.
Let’s see how well it’s enforced.
Low-income discrimination
"The city regulation prohibits renting out units ... which are subject to income restrictions under city affordable-housing rules"
I get the reasoning, but by the same token these are people who most need a few extra bucks, renting out (eg) when they're out of town for a weekend.
It certainly would distort their income...
...and the purpose of the housing in the first place.
Affordable housing tends to exist through subsidy that is designed to provide affordable housing, not income.
it makes sense
I live in one of those units, and I think the city's restriction makes sense. It's there b/c the market rate price right now to rent my unit out is obscenely high and the point of having affordable units is to encourage residents to actually live in Boston. Otherwise, you could get the unit & rent it out to AirBnB and ditch town. There are similar restrictions about selling the units. You gain a percentage of profit each year, but you can't turn around and sell it market value, and the unit stays affordable even after you leave. You know full well about the restrictions when you agree to purchase or rent out the affordable units. Personally, I don't feel like this keeps me down. The stability allowed me to let go of SO much stress I was carrying over paying for housing, my mortgage is cheaper than my previous rent. I wound up getting a better job w/ an increased salary and I truly believe it was partially due to having the mental capacity to deal with the extra burden of studying for interviews (which are rough in my field) vs just scrambling to live. I'm happy that my unit stays affordable! If I leave, I want someone else to feel that relief if I decide to move. Otherwise, the affordable units decrease in number, and that's a shame.
Even barring the above, most of the affordable units are probably in HOA's that forbid AirBnB anyway since the city tends to mix them in w/ luxury units. My HOA is currently in the process of closing a loop hole that was letting some residents use AirBnB. No one showed up at our meetings in support of the AirBnB rentals and it was universally voted out. Personally, I was cool with other tenants renting out their space on a short-term basis until some of the guests started a fist fight in our hallway. We still are allowing long-term rentals b/c they tend to have less problems (probably just due to sheer numbers, less turnover).
for good or bad
Air bnb is an option for a building owner that have units that don't qualify as legal apartments. Until Boston is willing to allow accessory apartments to be registered, they can be rented out on AirBnB instead. There are huge houses in Dorchester with owners that can't afford the laborious process of turning them into multi units.
I don't know about how legal it is but you could buy a building with an investment group and one owner could live there and manage it. I know this might sound off, but that is basically how most chicken and pig farming is done in the US. Technically the farmer is the owner but their profit margin is pretty slim.