Thousands of short-term vacation rentals could be contributing to the rental crisis in South Florida, where it has become harder to find affordable places to live, according to a new study.
Short-term vacation rentals might be keeping units from entering the market that could instead be used as longer-term rentals during a time when many areas in Florida wrestle with increasingly high rents and a severe shortage of affordable places to live, the study from Florida Atlantic University suggests.
“They are taking properties off the market that could be used as longer-term rentals,” said Ken H. Johnson, real estate economist at Florida Atlantic University. “It’s the shortage of available units that drives rental rates higher. While developers and local governments clearly need to build more units, that’s not the only solution to this problem.”
