DC Says Thanks, but No Thanks, To Home-Sharing

The DC City Council preliminarily approved measures to limit the ability of property owners to offer their properties up on popular home-sharing sites like AirBnB. DC joins New York City and San Francisco in highly restricting a property owner’s ability to offer individual properties on home-sharing sites.

The new DC bill:

• Completely bans DC property owners from renting out second homes on a short-term basis
• Implements new licensing and reporting requirements for any home offered for rent on a short-term basis (as it has always required for regular rental properties)
• Limits homeowners to renting out a primary residence for a maximum of 90 days in a calendar year when the host is absent from the home
• Does NOT limit short term rentals in a homeowner’s primary residence when the host IS present
• Will require current zoning laws, that up until now have been widely ignored by residents and DC, to be changed to allow short-term rental licenses in most areas of the city

Here are the major impacts on homeowners:

• If you currently own a property in DC that you rent out on any home-sharing site, but do not occupy, then you will need to convert this to a long term rental to remain compliant with DC law
• If you currently own a property in DC that you occupy and rent out on any home-sharing site then you will:
  • Need to obtain a license to continue doing so and be compliant with DC law
  • Be limited to 90 rental nights a year when you are not present
  • Not be limited to the number of nights you rent a room or accessory dwelling unit when you are present

In the short term we expect to see a bump in sale inventory as some current property owners opt to sell their investment properties instead of converting them to long term rentals.

We also expect properties that have accessory dwelling units to become even more valuable than they are currently to prospective purchasers who intend to occupy the main dwelling but want additional income from home-sharing an accessory dwelling unit.

The fact is, the ‘sharing-economy’ is here to stay and visitors to DC want home-sharing options and many residents and property owners want to profit from the trend. We’ll be watching these regulations closely as we expect home-sharing companies and many residents to continue fighting the measure by possibly initiating a ballot measure in the future.

Do you have a property that will be impacted by these new regulations? Contact us for a confidential meeting to discuss your options.

The Stokes Group is a team of dedicated professionals who have passion for the real estate business and will advocate for our clients with the utmost honesty, integrity, and confidentiality. We believe in building solid relationships with our clients and that starts by getting to know who we are. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.