Airbnb is squeezing Toronto’s housing market

Brezina says the online home-sharing platform allowed a single host to run several “ghost hotels” that ruined her street and forced her and her young family to move out of their dream home because living there turned into a nightmare. Based on input from people like Brezina, and other neighbours who also complained about Airbnb changing the character of their street, the City of Toronto crafted a set of rules targeting commercial hosts, who run so-called “ghost hotels”––with no front desk or staff, just a “ghostly” online check-in process. According to urban law and governance expert Mariana Valverde, Airbnb incentivizes people to not only use their property for short-term tourist rentals, but even buy properties with that goal in mind, because its technology makes it so easy for commercial hosts to book visitors.

Source: news.vice.com