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Wealth

Airbnbs Outnumber New York City Apartments in Hot Market

  • Vacancy rate in Manhattan has slipped to just 1.5% in April
  • Critics have long accused Airbnb of driving up prices
Prospective renters wait outside an apartment unit in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in the Brooklyn borough of New York.

Prospective renters wait outside an apartment unit in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in the Brooklyn borough of New York.

Photographer: Bess Adler/Bloomberg
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The number of short-term rentals in New York City is outpacing the number of available apartments, putting a pinch on renters who are looking for space in a hot housing market. 

The total number of short-term rentals of entire homes in the city’s five boroughs -- those listed on Airbnb Inc. and Expedia Group Inc.’s Vrbo -- is more than 13,000, according to third-party data tracker AirDNA. Meanwhile, rental inventory in Manhattan, Brooklyn and a portion of Queens hovers just over 7,500, according to an April report from broker Douglas Elliman Real Estate. AirDNA defines active listings as those with one reserved or available day in the last month.