What Airbnb really does to a neighbourhood

Re:What Airbnb really does to a neighbourhood by nerdponx on Thursday August 30, 2018 @01:38PM (#17878807)

Unless there wasn't, and now there is because of Airbnb. Or an existing shortage was exacerbated by Airbnb.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:What Airbnb really does to a neighbourhood by burlesona on Thursday August 30, 2018 @01:43PM (#17878857)

I understand what you're saying but that doesn't contradict my point. If the appearance of AirBNB suddenly causes a housing shortage than there was presumably a lot of pent up demand for hotel-type space in the market that was being artificially restricted by hotel regulations, and the regional housing supply was fragile in the face of increased demand.

Across the world right now most major cities are struggling in the face of growth, but it doesn't really make sense that they should be. I live in San Francisco where housing supply is critically low, but our annual growth rate is only around 1%. It's deeply concerning that our institutions crumble and in the face of a 1% annual growth rate.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:What Airbnb really does to a neighbourhood by nerdponx on Thursday August 30, 2018 @02:43PM (#17879515)

hotel-type space in the market that was being artificially restricted by hotel regulations

is not the same as housing.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:What Airbnb really does to a neighbourhood by dcosson on Thursday August 30, 2018 @02:05PM (#17879091)

For a quick order of magnitude comparison, taking SF as an example - as near I can find, there are somewhere between 5k and 10k airbnb listings in the whole bay area. But to be very conservative let's assume 10k and assume they're all in SF itself.

Well between 2010 and 2015 SF added 150k more jobs than housing units. Meaning to get back to 2010 levels of affodability SF would have to add on the order of 150k more housing units (and that has probably grown even worse in the past 3 years since 2015).

Airbnb is unfortunately just a drop in the bucket.

[ Parent | on HN ]