Wednesday, January 25, 2017

In 2015, short-term rentals boosted Nashville's economy by $477.2 million.


In 2015, short-term rentals boosted Nashville's economy by $477.2 million says a study by  the Austin, Texas based consulting firm of TXP Inc. prepared for HomeAway.  HomeAway is a company, similar to Airbnb, that matches those with rooms to rent to vacationing visitors with those seeking a place to stay in  Nashville.  This study is released as the Metro Council is considering a moratorium or ban on non-owner-occupied short-term rental units.

There is pending before the Council an ordinance that would make changes to Metro's existing Short-term Rental Property regulations and modify those regulations to make them constitutional. In October 2015 a judge ordered that metro's STRP regulations were unconstitutionally vague. At a public hearing on January 4th, 2017, on the new proposed replacement ordinance for the one found unconstitutional, many citizen activist showed up to argue STRP should be banned, especially those in which the owner did not live on the property.

The ordinance is set for the second of three votes on Feb. 7th.  A couple council members have said they will move to amend the proposed ordinance to include a ban or moratorium on those short-term rental properties in which the owner does not live on the property.  Opponents of short-term rentals refer to these type of units as "investor-owned." even though the "investor" is usually someone who lives in the neighborhood and may own one property they rent using an app like Airbnb or HomeAway.

If Metro does move to ban or unreasonably restrict STRP there is a likely  possibility the State could implement a statewide policy and curtail Metro's regulatory authority. For more on the topic including seeing the pubic hearing on the topic see this link, this link, and this link.

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