Will Airbnb return to NYC? Bill would allow short-term rentals for 1- and 2-family homes.

Airbnb may soon be making a comeback in New York City, at least for one- and two-family homes.

The New York City Council is considering a new measure to allow some landlords to list their properties on Airbnb and other platforms aimed at tourists and temporary visitors. The move comes after a city crackdown eliminated thousands of illegal short-term rentals last year.

The bill introduced by Councilmember Farah Louis of Brooklyn would permit rentals of less than 30 days at hundreds of thousands of small properties across the city.

The proposal is earning support from homeowner advocates who say the listings allow them to earn extra income without a full-time tenant and to lease their units for parts of the year. But it’s also reigniting opposition from tenant groups who say those listings take much needed homes off the market and worsen the city’s already-severe housing crisis.

Meanwhile, the legislation is stoking an ongoing battle between the city's influential hotel industry and Airbnb as well as other deep-pocketed short-term listings companies.

A spokesperson for Louis pointed to her comments at a Council hearing on Wednesday, where she said she had introduced the bill to help homeowners facing rising costs. “These homeowners pursuing the American dream are being held back by a policy that treats them as though they are commercial enterprises,” she said.

City rules have long prohibited short-term rentals, but the practice remained common until a law that took effect in September 2023 blocked Airbnb and other platforms from processing payment unless the owner had permission from the city to list their unit. That measure, known as Local Law 18, quickly eliminated more than 10,000 Airbnb listings across the five boroughs.

The new legislation already has key support from Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, who is one of its cosponsors. If enacted, it would mark a victory for Airbnb and a group of small property owners who had been lobbying the Council to allow them to take in tourists and other short-term renters without penalties.

Airbnb has spent more than $1 million so far this year on advertising campaigns and appeals to every member of the City Council, lobbying records show. The group Restore Homeowner Autonomy and Rights, or RHOAR, includes a number of small homeowners who say the crackdown is hurting their ability to earn money from their properties, especially for people on fixed incomes.

“Short-term rentals provided a way for us to make ends meet and maintain using our homes in a flexible way,” said RHOAR member Margenett Moore-Roberts, a Brooklyn homeowner. “It’s been a vital source of supplemental income for people who have owned their homes for a long time.”

But tenant activists say the measure will further reduce the number of available apartments for long-term renters amid a dire housing shortage and record-high rents because landlords can earn more by renting out their units to tourists.

“It’s a disaster,” said Mike McKee, treasurer of the Tenants PAC group and a fierce critic of short-term rentals. “There’s a ton of rental units that can be taken off the housing market and used for tourism at a time when New York City has had the tightest housing market in its history.”

There are more than 900,000 one- and two-family homes across the five boroughs, with renters in about 319,000 of them, according to the city’s most recent housing survey.

Whitney Hu, director of civic engagement and research for the nonprofit Churches United for Fair Housing, said the new measure would incentivize investors to scoop up small properties and turn them into short-term hotels.

“This bill particularly puts Black and Brown communities in New York at greater risk of exploitation by the speculative market,” Hu said in a statement.

Louis’ bill would allow the owners of one- and two-family homes to rent their property to up to four adults at a time for less than 30 days, and scrap rules that force the owner or permanent occupant to be present in the unit during a guest's stay. The bill would still require property owners to register their units with the city.

The city’s Office of Special Enforcement, which administers the short-term rental registrations, said it does not track the impact of Local Law 18 on the city’s housing market. The office has fined companies for turning larger apartment buildings into de facto hotels by listing a number of units on Airbnb or other platforms.

Camille Adolphe, a spokesperson for the office, said it is “reviewing the proposal with an eye toward protecting units of housing, our communities and travelers to the city.”