NYC business leaders renew push to ease short-term rental restrictions

97 Barrow Street in Greenwich Village, New York City, photographed in 2019. (Spencer Means from New York City, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

(The Center Square) — New York City business leaders are urging the City Council to ease restrictions on short-term rentals they say have created a shortage of temporary housing.

In a letter to Council Speaker Julie Menin on Sunday, the chambers of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and other New York City boroughs called on the top Democrat to throw her weigh behind a proposal that would lift some restrictions on short-term rentals while preserving a primary residence requirement that would allow more homeowners to rent out their properties.

The business leaders pointed to Airbnb's booking data during the recent World Cup competition that included several matches in New Jersey, including the final between Spain and Argentina. It showed that many guests who booked stays in neighboring New Jersey had initially searched sites in New York City, the business groups said.

"MetLife Stadium's location explains some of the New Jersey demand, but not visitors who looked for a place to stay here first," they wrote.

The law, approved in 2025, set limits on the number of visitors and barred short-term rentals of less than 30 days unless the host is on premises, which industry leaders say effectively blocked Airbnb, Booking.com and other short-term rentals from the lucrative NYC market.

At the time, New York City officials said the new restrictions aim to reduce thousands of illegal listings, citing thousands of complaints involving late-night partying, excessive noise and criminal activity. They also came in response to complaints that corporations were buying up housing in the city to use for short term rentals, edging out potential homeowners.

But Airbnb and other companies said the law shriveled up the city's short-term rental market and has impacted tourism, preventing homeowners from another source of revenue by renting out their properties.

Despite that, previous efforts by the chambers and others to roll back the regulations have repeatedly hit a brick wall at City Hall, with leaders reluctant to ease regulations they say could worsen the city's housing crisis.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist who was sworn to office in January, said he supports keeping the rental restrictions in place and has rejected calls to ease them.

Earlier this year, Airbnb enlisted Rev. Al Sharpton and other influential New York black leaders in a campaign to convince Mamdani to loosen the restrictions ahead of the World Cup competition. Sharpton has also called on Menin to support the legislation to loosen the restrictions.

New York City's influential hotel workers’ unions have long argued that Airbnb takes housing off the market and contributes to rising rents and displacement in working-class neighborhoods.