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Comment by flexie | Hacker News Reader

There are not many "corporate-owned mini-hotels" but there are certainly hundreds of thousands of people that buy one or more apartments with the purpose of renting them out through AirBnB (or not sell apartments that they would otherwise have gotten rid off).

AirBnB doesn't make the little guy make a few extra bucks renting out a room as much as it makes those who already have money buy up studios and one bedroom apartments. The effect is that such apartments get more expensive for those who just need a place to live.

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If only there were some way of increasing the number of housing units on a given area of land, this problem could be solved and we could have enough housing for everybody. This kind of technology could really ameliorate such problems.

https://www.vox.com/a/new-economy-future/urban-sprawl-housin...

Increasing the number of housing units doesn't solve the problem though. What is to stop people with money from buying those up and then Airbnbing them out?

Those "landlords/property investors" have enough cashflow and collateral to continue to expand their portfolios and get lines of credit to do so, which puts 'normal people' looking for housing at a disadvantage.

In high-demand housing areas, there needs to be more housing regulation to balance the businesses vs. individuals. It's good that there are cool places that encourage visitors to temporarily stay and spend locally, but there are also people wanting to live there that would also spend locally. The property businesses are making such a $/day killing on Airbnbs that they would rather keep that system than rent units for people to live there (and have to adhere to all the landlord laws).

Airbnb is a convenient loophole that offers more money with less effort as long as demand is high.

Increasing the number of housing units doesn't solve the problem though. What is to stop people with money from buying those up and then Airbnbing them out?

The principle of supply and demand, or basic economics. If demand for units is satisfied and an agent keeps buying and attempting to rent units, the price will collapse until the agent can no longer afford or buy them.

You may want to spend some time here: https://mru.org/courses/principles-economics-microeconomics

You don't even have to buy, you can throw down a security deposit, drop $1000 at ikea, and airbnb all month and make rent and more. You don't even have to ever step foot in the unit or meet a single guest; there are interior decorators and cleaning services that specialize in Airbnbs and you can stick the key in a lock box and change the password between stays.

Correct, should have clarified.

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