[URBAN NOTE] "Airbnb says it doesn’t affect Toronto’s rental market"

[rfmcdonald]

I'm inclined to be skeptical about this Airbnb claim, as reported by The Globe and Mail's Jeff Gray. I am not sure whether this skepticism is justifiable.

Airbnb is trying to fend off the threat of strict regulations in Toronto with new numbers the company says show its “home-sharing” business is having little effect on the city’s tight long-term rental market.

City officials are set to begin drafting new rules to govern short-term home-rental websites such as Airbnb, which has launched court challenges of new rules imposed on it in New York State and the company’s hometown of San Francisco.

The hotel industry complains that Airbnb is competing unfairly, avoiding taxes and other costs. Other critics say the service is resulting in the saturation of desirable Toronto neighbourhoods with “ghost hotels” – properties that are let out on Airbnb full-time – squeezing out regular long-term tenants.

But in a study being released Tuesday and co-authored by Airbnb’s head economist, former Harvard Business School assistant professor Peter Coles, the company says that of the 9,500 active listings it had in Toronto last year, only 760 could be considered competitive with conventional long-term rentals.

Those 760 full units brought in at least $16,100 a year, or the equivalent a landlord would receive from a long-term tenant paying the city’s average monthly rent of $1,339. The typical Airbnb listing for an entire unit in Toronto brings in much less, just $6,560 a year, the company says, with 46 per cent rented for less than 30 days.