Local law limits rent increases for long-term residents but if tenants are evicted, like they were here, they'll probably have to pay market rate to stay in the city.īut Peter Kwan, head of Home Sharers of San Francisco, urges critics not to blame all those renting to short-term visitors for the housing crisis. It's also got some of the most expensive median rents at nearly $3,300 per month. The city's nearly 3 percent vacancy rate is already one of the lowest in the nation. "The underlying problem in San Francisco is the conversion of rent-controlled apartments to other uses, be they condo or tourist, which is taking sorely needed rent-controlled units off the market," Gullicksen says. Ted Gullicksen of the San Francisco Tenants Union says those units were added to the 7,500 or so available to tourists in San Francisco using sites like Airbnb and VRBO. This used to be the rent-controlled home of elderly tenants until out-of-town investors bought the building and evicted the residents.
In the city's North Beach neighborhood, for example, protesters recently gathered around a three-unit apartment with flats an online broker rents to vacationers.
Online rental brokers like Airbnb, VRBO and Flipkey in San Francisco may be finding some success renting to visitors on a nightly basis, but people concerned about a shrinking rental market have turned to legal action and protests.
0 kommentar(er)
