Housing shortage could put brakes on new short-term rentals

The surge of short-term rentals and the rise of companies such as Airbnb has made it more difficult to find a home to rent or a house to buy in Albuquerque. The issue has spurred city councilors to propose a bill to limit the number of short-term rentals in certain areas, but others say it’s not that simple.

City Councilors Joaquín Baca and Nichole Rogers designed the bill to apply to sectors that host half of the short-term rental properties in the city — namely the Downtown, University of New Mexico (UNM) and Nob Hill areas. 

No new short-term rental permits would be issued for properties within 330-feet of an existing one — roughly a residential block. The boundary would make it more difficult to add short-term rentals in the highly concentrated areas — represented in a recent map of the Raynolds neighborhood created by Downtown Area News.

There are exceptions to the 330-foot restriction. It wouldn’t apply to existing short-term rentals or at properties where an owner rents out a room in the house they live in. It also wouldn’t apply to casitas where the owner occupies the primary residence on the property.

The City Council is scheduled to vote on the bill at its Sept. 4 meeting. 

Patricia Willson, president of the Victory Hills Neighborhood Association who’s in support of the bill, said private investors buying single family homes has “done more to exacerbate Albuquerque’s housing shortage than anything else.”

“Every short-term rental removes a long-term housing opportunity from our critical shortage of housing, and even a single short-term rental has an often deleterious effect on the community of a block,” she said.

Victory Hills is located just south of UNM and Nob Hill. Willson said the neighborhood’s proximity to Bandelier Elementary School makes it a desirable spot for families with kids, but as more short-term rentals have come online, options have dwindled. 

“People without a stake in the neighborhood are probably the most destructive,” she said.

This view is borne out by data from analytics firm CoreLogic. The firm told City Desk ABQ that its data confirms that investors are buying at higher numbers than usual in Bernalillo County — an almost 35% share so far this year compared with 22.5% in 2019.

‘The real solution’

Others aren’t as convinced that the restrictions are an answer to the city’s housing woes, and the bill’s passage could face an uphill climb. 

A similar bill was sponsored last year by former City Councilor Ike Benton — although it would have applied citywide. Councilors voted against the bill on a 6-3 vote.

Erin Thornton of Strong Towns ABQ said that while the group supports the restrictions as a stop gap measure to prevent the loss of scarce housing supply, the city needs to do more.

“Albuquerque is short by thousands of homes, so we continue to urge City Council to focus on simplifying and speeding up the permitting process for building housing and allow missing middle housing throughout the city where jobs, transit and community resources exist,” she said.

Strong Towns ABQ — a nonprofit, anti-sprawl, advocacy organization — was one of the most vocal supporters of proposed zoning changes to allow single family homes to be converted into duplexes for rent in certain areas located near mass transit. The City Council voted against the measure in a 6-3 vote in June.

While short-term rentals aren’t generally a focus of the Apartment Association of New Mexico, its executive director, Alan LaSeck, said imposing more limits is likely not an answer to high rents and the city’s housing headaches.

“If you crunch the numbers, there are about 260,000 household units in Albuquerque and about 2,200 active Airbnb’s — depending on the time of the year,” he said. “That means Airbnbs roughly account for 0.0085% of Albuquerque’s housing stock.”

Based on LaSeck’s figures Airbnbs are actually .85% of Albuquerque’s housing stock.

LaSeck noted that there are also positives associated with short-term rentals.

“I, a family of five with a dog, prefer to stay in Airbnb — it just makes more sense,” he said. “If I was traveling here for the Balloon Fiesta, Airbnb would be my preferred choice.”

LaSeck said short-term rentals also contribute to city coffers through lodgers’ and gross receipts taxes. 

“Both are good things. The real solution to more housing is to build more housing,” he said.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include the correct percentage of short term rentals based on LaSeck’s figures.