iGMS Measures the Real Impact of New York's Short-Term Rental Law, Finding Supply 80% Below Where It Would Otherwise Be

VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--iGMS, the short-term rental management software for hosts growing beyond one platform, today released "What New York's Short-Term Rental Crackdown Actually Did," a study of Local Law 18. It measures New York against what the city would likely look like without the law, modeled on eight similar U.S. counties with no new rules, using data through May 2026.

Airbnb says New York listings fell more than 90%, and AirDNA put the drop at 83% in the first year. Neither figure accounts for similar markets growing their supply 40.5% over the same period.

Key findings:

• New York has about 80% less short-term rental supply than it would without the law, versus 72% in a simple before-and-after.
• Of 31,198 pre-law listings, 76.5% no longer appear on Airbnb and 17.4% switched to stays of 30 nights or more.
• Manhattan lost 81% of its pre-law listings, the highest share of any borough.
• Average asking prices rose 137% relative to similar markets after enforcement began, yet the same listings, tracked individually, rose 15%.
• For every 100 booked nights New York lost, commuter counties gained about 13, led by those with the best transit to Manhattan.

The study does not claim the law caused the price changes, or that units returned to long-term housing, because the data cannot support either.

"Hosts and policymakers have been working from numbers that answer the wrong question," said Ivan Levchenko, CEO of iGMS. "What changed isn't the same as what the law changed. We wanted an honest answer, including where the data runs out."

The full report and methodology are free at https://www.igms.com/go/nyc-str-report/.

About iGMS

iGMS is short-term rental management software for independent hosts and small property managers who typically host 1-19 properties on Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com. It consolidates bookings, messages, and calendars into a single dashboard and a native mobile app for iOS and Android, enabling hosts to manage their business from their phones. With live human support, iGMS handles channel syncing, guest messaging, cleaning, team management, payments, and direct booking. Founded in 2015, iGMS serves over 6,000 hosts worldwide and is an Airbnb Preferred Software Partner.