New York counties will soon be able to create their own registries for short-term rental properties. This is a move that has a major impact on the local economy and housing availability. This regulatory change will be in the hands of the state legislature and will take place in January, with a bill that will create new rules for such rentals.
Governor Kathy Hochul argued that this bill would have imposed significant unbudgeted costs on the State Department. It would also have created a different tax regime than she had previously proposed in her executive budget. However, she did not say how much the bill as drafted would have cost the agency.
This new regulation would give counties the option of creating their own registries for short-term rental properties in New York. It is a non-mandatory project, so no obligation will be imposed on those locations that do not want to do so.
A new obligation for booking platforms
Booking platforms that list such rentals, including Airbnb and Vrbo, will be required to send the counties quarterly reports. These documents have to contain location of each property, how many nights it was occupied and how many people stayed at the property. In this way, the State Department will not have to keep its own records.
This action is primarily intended to give counties and the state a much more detailed picture of the prevalence of these rentals, along with how often they are used and how they impact the local supply of affordable housing. Sen. Michelle Hinchey, D-Hudson Valley, called this a tool to understand the true scope of short-term rentals.
The lawmaker, who was also a sponsor of this bill, argued that the new regulations will also allow for the development of strategies to expand stable housing options, unlock untapped income and increase affordability. In addition, short-term rental properties will also be required to pay the same taxes in New York on sales and occupancy as hotels. However, that varies by county.
For her part, Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy, D-Albany argued that this would represent an unlocking of new tourism revenue to help attract visitors. It will also serve to stabilize real estate markets and address a crisis currently plaguing New York: affordability.
Lack of information on short-term rentals in New York counties
Reservation services will have to include the amount collected in taxes on each property in the quarterly reports they will provide to the counties. This will give local government agencies a way to know how much tax revenue should come from each rental. This is a very useful monitoring tool. For example, Airbnb maintains voluntary tax collections with 37 New York counties. However, there is currently no way for the counties to know whether the amount paid reflects their total sales.
Nor do the counties have a way of knowing the total number of short-term rental properties operating in the jurisdictions, unless some New York municipality has already created its own registry of hosts. Recall that several cities have done so over the past few years.
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