Apartment rentals around the world: New York City has taken action to combat high prices.

Thousands of New York City apartments on short-term rental platform Airbnb will soon disappear from the map. The new law, known as Local Law 18, went into effect earlier this month and is so strict that it doesn't just restrict the way Airbnb operates in the city - it almost completely bans it for many guests and hosts.

According to the new rules, all hosts will only be able to list their apartments on Airbnb if they themselves live in the property they want to rent out and will be present during guests' stays. The number of possible guests is limited to just two. While Airbnb and other platforms will be able to continue operating in New York City, one of the most expensive cities in the world, the law is so strict that Airbnb themselves see the restrictions as a de facto ban.

In other words, there's an end to luxury apartments for girls' and boys' parties, as well as two- and three-bedroom apartments rented to families visiting the city as tourists. Short-term apartment rentals have increased noise and pollution for residents, and quite a few people have been forced to leave the city because of renting. More experienced entrepreneurs rented them out by the hundreds, while the less wealthy rented them out on weekends to cover their loan payments.

New York City is only part of the global Airbnb market, but local officials are working to stamp out tourist rentals and quiet this "gold rush." Many cities have enacted bans. The problem of unmanaged rentals is prevalent across the U.S., and each city has a different approach. Dallas has restricted short-term rentals in certain neighborhoods to avoid rowdy and outlandish parties. In San Francisco, the time a person can list their fully owned property on Airbnb is limited to 90 days per year; Amsterdam sets that limit at 30 nights per year, and Paris sets it at 120 days. Berlin almost banned Airbnb back in 2018, but reversed that decision. The Canadian provinces of Quebec and Memphis require special permits for short-term rentals.

Airbnb's attempts to change this trend have been unsuccessful to date. The company filed suit against New York in June, but a judge dismissed the case in August, finding the restrictions "very reasonable." Airbnb has not yet commented on whether it will appeal the decision.

These new rules are "a blow to New York City's tourist economy and to the thousands of New Yorkers and small businesses in the outer boroughs who rely on rental homes and tourist dollars to make ends meet," Theo Jedinsky, director of Airbnb, says for Wired. "The city is sending a clear message to millions of potential visitors that you are not welcome," Jedinski adds.

The change will make short-term apartment rentals much less attractive to many people coming to New York City because hotel rooms are limited and very expensive, says Sean Hennessy, a professor at New York University. There are currently more than 40,000 apartments on Airbnb in New York City, according to Inside Airbnb, which tracks listings on the platform. Of that number, since June, 22,434 apartments have been offered for short-term rentals, defined as places that can be booked for less than 30 days. Many are concentrated in midtown Manhattan, on the Upper East Side, and in Williamsburg and Park Slope in Brooklyn. While the number of accommodations may be small compared to New York City's population of 8 million, Marri Cox, founder of Inside Airbnb, says some desirable neighborhoods are overloaded with short-term rental properties, leading to a shortage of apartments and higher rents for residents and increased homelessness.

The new law could, in theory, open up those housing units to local residents. The sudden shortage of Airbnb apartments in New York City is exacerbated by the fact that part of a new law allows landlords to ban all buildings on the platforms for short-term rentals. In July, the list included nearly 9,000 buildings across New York City. New York's short-term rental laws do not apply to apartments located in areas zoned for hotels and B&Bs, meaning there will still be a few whole units offered on the rental platforms.

Some small Airbnb hosts feel the law unfairly ties them to professional owners. Margenette Moore-Roberts rents out a one-bedroom apartment in her Brooklyn building and lives in another with her husband and daughter. She says she doesn't want to rent the apartment to a permanent tenant and deprive herself of hosting family and friends, or use it, as she did during the pandemic, as a home office. But because her family does not live in the apartment, she can no longer host on Airbnb for less than 30 days.