The Unintended Consequences of Short-Term Rental Regulation: Evidence from New York City's Local Law 18
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The rapid expansion of short-term rental platforms such as Airbnb has sparked intense debates about its impact on urban housing affordability. The rapid development of the short-term rental market in New York has brought great economic pressure to the local homeless residents. This paper uses the implementation of Local Law 18 in New York City in September 2023 as a natural experiment to investigate whether short-term rental regulations can effectively achieve stated goal of improving long-term residents' housing affordability. Through the analysis of internal data from Airbnb and housing market statistics, this study found that although the regulation successfully reduced approximately 90% of short-term rental supply, the expected improvement in long-term housing affordability was not achieved. The research results indicate that the housing affordability crisis in major cities is mainly driven by fundamental supply constraints rather than short-term rental platforms. This paper provides empirical evidence on the effectiveness of regulation and proposes evidence-based policy alternatives.
Author: Yuzi Dong
Language: English
Subfield: Marketing
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7165652512