A bill to create the first statewide Short-Term Rental (STR) registry, sponsored by Michelle Hinchey in the state senate, attempts to pull the curtain back on an industry whose leaders — AirBnB, Vrbo, Vacasa — have been reluctant to share the details on short-term rentals by municipality. Comprehensive data about how STRs contribute to the housing crisis has remained unavailable.
Supporters of the industry emphasize the revenue stream made available to everyday homeowners renting out their property for the short term, the tourism benefits, and the sales-tax and occupancy-tax benefits to municipalities. Critics point to the damage to the long-term rental market, the significant volume of the housing stock bought up by speculators and hedge funds, and the unfair competition posed to conventional hotels.
If signed into law, the bill will require property owners to register their short-term rentals with the NYS Department of State (DoS) every two years. The DoS will send monthly reports to municipalities detailing the number of rentals in each community, their locations, and their occupancy nights.
Municipalities satisfied with their own short-term rental registration systems can continue to use them.
Senator Hinchey’s office estimates that $550 million in local revenues has been lost in the past five years.
The bill does not compel property owners to declare their identities and what percentage of housing properties are owned and rented out by large corporations will remain a mystery to policy makers and the public. Nor does the bill compel DoS to share any information with the public.
If the registry bill gets the governor’s signature, it will take effect six months after it becomes law.
The county-run website Participate Ulster displays a public-facing dashboard tracking short-term rental advertisements. Participate Ulster shows that 2584 short-term rentals were advertised in the county over the one-year period 2022-2023. Granicus, the contractor that provides data for the information for the county reported that approximately 90 percent of short-term rentals were for entire homes.
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