New York counties will now have the ability to create a new short-term rental registry. This is very good news, which came after Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law a bill created by State Senator Michelle Hinchey and Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy. But what is this new regulation all about? Now we tell you.
The bill hopes to increase accountability and communication between short-term rentals and the New York counties in which they operate. However, Hinchey highlights that, in order to do that, it will require a statewide authority that incorporates the attorney general to help with enforcement. This would function as a prompt to say, “We are looking at the landscape now.”
The state senator explained that this bill seeks to support New York’s counties and cities. It is that this new law would allow them to have much more information that they currently need to make better decisions for all citizens and economic sectors.
The first step to regularize the short-term rental industry in New York City
The grassroots group For the Many praised the registry as a good first step in regulating the short-term rental industry, which has been on the rise over the past few years in New York. Daniel Atonna, policy coordinator for this institution, stresses that the regulatory actions will not end there, as there are many other things that can be improved.
As he explained, the next step will be to make sure that vacation rentals (short-term rentals that buy real estate to use for short-term purposes) do not affect the housing stock in Hudson Valley communities. “In fact, there are studies that show that the more short-term rentals there are, the more rents can increase in the community,” Atona asserted.
Finally, the political coordinator of the grassroots group For the Many pointed out that there was one very important point that influenced the political bill introduced by Senator Hinchey and Assemblywoman Fahy, and that is the fact that they are taking housing off the market.
New obligations for reservation platforms
With this new regulation, the reservation platforms for this type of rentals will have the obligation to send quarterly reports to the counties. This document must contain information on the location of each property, how many nights it was occupied and how many people stayed in the property. Thanks to this, the State Department will not have to keep its own records.
This is intended to give New York counties and the state a much more detailed picture of the prevalence of short-term rentals. This will also provide insight into how often they are used and how they impact the local supply of affordable housing.
Lack of information from the state
Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy argued that this tool would represent an unlocking of new tourism revenues. In addition, it will go a long way toward stabilizing housing markets and addressing the crisis currently rocking New York with respect to affordability. But what the Democrat emphasizes the most, is that this regulation will allow to combat the lack of information that exists regarding this type of rentals.
With all the information that the reservation platforms will now have to provide, the state will have specific quarterly data that will be very useful to know how much tax revenue should come from each rental. Currently, counties have no way of knowing if the amount paid for services reflects total sales, nor can they know the total number of properties operating within their jurisdictions. Therefore, this would be a very useful monitoring tool.
