How San Diego's New Ordinance Could Impact Short-term Rentals

Historically, many of San Diego’s neighborhoods have been filled with short term vacation rentals. Although some may feel this takes away the community aspect of a neighborhood —that feeling where you know just about everyone, others look for vacation rentals as a stream of cash flow. In San Diego, rental properties are great investments, and short-term rentals are typically more profitable than long term rentals. So what could this vote mean? The new ordinance would cut up to 1% of short term rentals from the cities housing stock. According to PB Monthly’s article, the first vote passed and the ordinance will now move to a second vote for further determination.

Source: Matthew Rader on UNSPLASH

Below highlights some key points of the ordinance:

• The new regulations, which still need a second vote of the council before becoming law, grew out of a compromise plan that won the support of Airbnb and other large home-sharing platforms, as well as the local hotel workers union.

• For all but Mission Beach, such rentals will be capped at 1 percent of the city’s more than 540,000 housing units, or about 5,400.

• Only one license will be allowed per individual, and the regulations will not take effect until July 1, 2022.

• In Mission Beach the allocation would be much more generous, limited to 30 percent of the community’s total dwelling units, or about 1,100.

• The ordinance would lay out a Good Neighbor Policy along with strict enforcement guidelines, a fine structure for violations, and a license revocation standard.

• A local contact will be required to be able to respond to disturbances at the property in one hour or less.

If you are looking to invest in a rental property, these may be some factors to consider. The ordinance is still TBD, but this provides some insight to where the future of short term rentals in San Diego could be headed.

Sources: PB Monthly , CBS8