this week, one resident of New York City explained how he was able to go from struggling student to earning a more than comfortable living by doing, well, not really that much at all. In 2020 Tom DeRose was in college in the city and found himself struggling to keep up with his landlord’s rent hike (not uncommon in a city where the average rent price is $4,050 per month for a small apartment).

DeRose’s solution was to sublet his apartment on AirBnB over the weekends, staying at friends while he did so. DeRose said he was surprised anyone was interested, but he found the demand was huge. Soon, he was renting out apartments, packing them full of millennial-friendly monotone furniture and the sort of art you’d find in a dentist waiting room, then subletting them full time on Air BnB. At one point, DeRose was operating over a dozen apartments, and involved in the management of more.

points out that in New York City, AirBnB rentals have allowed families to put their children through collage, pay off their mortgages, and even helped people quit their day jobs to pursue their dreams. The same is true across the US, and in the UK too, where there were 

 over half a million AirBnB listings annually, as of 2021.

Now, in the Big Apple at least, the AirBnB bubble has officially burst, with new rules on AirBnB and other short term rentals coming into effect as of Tuesday September 5th. Among other regulations, hosts must now prove they live in the dwelling they are renting out, and there can be no internal locks effectively dividing a property into two or more areas – both of which makes renting out your apartment in absentia that much more difficult. Those in violation can face fines up to $5,000.

“Registration creates a clear path for hosts who follow the city’s longstanding laws and protects travellers from illegal and unsafe accommodations, while ending the proliferation of illegal short-term rentals,” Christian Klossner, of the New York City mayor’s office of special enforcement, told 

New York’s clampdown on AirBnB is eerily reminiscent of its ban on Uber and other pool ride platforms in 2020. London also had an Uber-related wobble around the same time, with concerns that the platform was taking custom from the city’s black cab drivers. Uber was eventually granted a 30-month license to continue operating in London in March 2022. So, might we follow suit again and look to ban AirBnB in the capital, as some areas of Britain are already attempting?

 have already spoke out against AirBnB in the past, with the prime minister worrying about AirBnB flats being used to host loud parties, and Gove 

 to add a clause to the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill allowing regional mayors to ban short term lets unless the homeowner has applied for planning permission to use the property as a holiday home – plans which some called ‘

London currently has a 90 day limit on short-term rentals, meaning landlords are only allowed to rent a property for 90 days or nights or less in a calendar year. Of course, there are those who exceed this, but all signs point to a tightening of regulations, if not an outright ban. In fact, the backlash is happening across the country. In a piece titled ‘

The holiday spots that have declared war on AirBnB

’, the Telegraphy pointing to cities like Edinburgh, as well as North Devon which is currently undergoing a six-week consultation to ban houses in multiple occupation to be let out as holiday homes.

 between May 2022 and May 2023, many are rightly concerned that we need affordable housing, not overpriced temporary accommodation that caters to a transient population, forcing locals further out of their respective towns. Balancing the need to prevent AirBnB flooding the housing market with allowing those who genuinely need it to make a little extra cash will be difficult, but for those making all of their money from AirBnB, at the expense of others, it may be time to rethink, as Tom DeRose has: “For a short time it was a little golden age where I was making a lot of money for doing very little work. Looking back, it feels like I was making money off the difficulties of others. Every apartment I rented out, is probably out of someone’s hands who probably needed it more than I do.”

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