Dive Brief:
- The San Diego City Council voted to repeal its new restrictions on short-term housing rentals that were implemented over the summer.
- Among the previous restrictions were some requiring that homeowners could only rent their primary residences to short-term renters for up to 180 days a year, and renters in certain areas had to stay for at least three days. The city would have also created a new database for homeowner licenses, launched a complaint line and created a team of enforcers to address complaints.
- City council members indicated they would draft new regulations but no timeline has been mentioned.
Dive Insight:
The regulations that passed over the summer would not have gone into effect until next July. Now, because of San Diego's governance structure, city council will have to draw up regulations that are significantly different from the ones they just rejected.
As reported by FOX 5 San Diego and others, council members are frustrated with Airbnb because the company is accused of funding opposition efforts to the new rules. Ultimately, the amount of pushback is what prompted council members to rescind the regulations.
The council wanted to implement regulations to cut down on complaints from neighbors and prevent people from using secondary properties as rentals, which reduces the available housing supply. San Diego, like a number of other cities, has been trying to implement the short-term rental rules to ease a mounting housing crisis.
