We’ve had the same problem in Vancouver (BC, Canada) for a long time now.
AirBnB didn’t cause the problem directly, but it opened the doors to people seeing a speculative market (housing) as a commodity that they could take advantage of to enrich themselves further, while keeping people from getting a foot in the door because of reduced housing availability. We’ve introduced new legislation to combat it, and you should see how many hit-piece articles have come out about how this is going to:
- “ruin some peoples retirement plans” - probably will, but that’s a risk you take with a speculative investment
- “give the hotel industry everything they want” - also probably yes
- “won’t actually fix the housing issue” - I’m curious how a lot more availability will fail to drive prices down, which will at least help the housing issue.
People are focusing on how much money they can get for their property in one of the largest housing bubbles on Earth, and not caring that some other people simply lose out because they’re just… not already rich.
We’ve also had foreign property ownership rules changed as of this year and it’s helping a little bit already, we just need more focus on housing being… for people who live here.
Username checks out.