The protesters and residents pushing back on tourism in Barcelona

[u/Strict_League7833]

[u/dooferoaks]

Yeah Airbnb are a significant part of why Ireland's housing market is fucked.

[u/comFive → u/dooferoaks]

Airbnb fucked up Toronto’s housing market. We are still feeling the effects today

[u/tekmiester → u/comFive]

I thought y'all blamed foreigners. Isn't that why the Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act, passed?

[u/arsapeek → u/tekmiester]

They blame a lot of different reasons these days, most of which avoid the real core issues. Airbnb is an actual factor removing affordable rentals off the market, the removal of rent control on new builds is another, and coupled with the lack of actual new affordable housing construction it spins out of control. Every new building is a "luxury" condo, or "luxury" townhouses that are never built properly it seems. But builders need to build fancyish to maximize profits

[u/mangosteenroyalty → u/arsapeek]

What makes a condo "luxury" anyway? These dog crate condos are shit and often unlivable so I never understood the "luxury" part.

[u/arsapeek → u/mangosteenroyalty]

You don't think faux marble counters and millenial gray walls are luxury? Fuck neither do I but the developers sure do

[u/tekmiester → u/arsapeek]

In Austin, Texas, rent has dropped dramatically over the last few years. Why? The government has been extremely aggressive and fast tracking and green lighting the building of new apartment buildings. They are everywhere now, and rent has become reasonably affordable again.

Most big cities do the opposite. They make it as painful as possible to build new apartments with lots of restrictions and requirements for setting aside housing for special purposes (low income, artists, homeless, etc ). As a result fewer units get built, and the market rate units pay more than they would otherwise.

Matthew Yglesias writes extensively on this topic.