Housing costs

[taylortbb]

Ultimately, Airbnb removes units from the local real estate market. It isn’t residents of KW which are renting Airbnb’s, therefore it reduces supply of housing for residents. Yes, I believe housing residents should take precedence over housing short term visitors.

I'm not convinced Airbnb eliminates nearly as many units as people believe. If Airbnb didn't exist, many of those investors wouldn't purchase the property in the first place, and without buyers many of the properties that were developed as condos would instead be developed as hotels.

In a place like SF, which has such heavy restrictions on development that new towers are rare, I might believe Airbnb conversions happen faster than new construction. But in downtown Toronto? The absence of Airbnb would require the construction of far more hotels, and many condo developers would likely be hotel developers.