SB 1350 might just have hooked up Arizona Airbnb hosts all the way. The new bill signed by Arizona’s governor, Doug Ducey, outlaws cities and municipalities from prohibiting short-term rentals. His motivation behind the signing is his hopes for making Arizona the sharing economy and benefiting the economy from the tourism industry. As he stated, “Arizona should be to the Sharing Economy, what Texas is to Oil and what Silicon Valley used to be to the tech industry.”
This has given Airbnb hosts and Airbnb investment properties the ability to function easily without fearing legal punishments. This doesn’t mean no more paying taxes, but it does give anyone the opportunity to try Airbnb for business without the hassle of checking with city laws and regulations.
Related: The Trend of Legalizing Airbnb Rentals
This law probably breaks barriers for renters living in condos the most. It is generally illegal to sublet or have tenants rent a space for less than 30 or 60 days, depending on your area. Now with Arizona’s new law to protect short-term rentals, it’s expected a lot more rentals will start to be listed on Airbnb.
It makes sense why Arizona would pass such laws. In Phoenix, only 14 percent of the listings are multi-unit operators, but they generated more than 40 percent ($17 million) of Airbnb’s revenue from Phoenix from September 2014 to September 2015. You can find out how much you can earn from your rental property by using an Airbnb calculator.
Based on the CBRE Hotels’ Americas Research report released earlier this year, Phoenix was noted as one of the top 10 markets in the U.S. for unit growth. The report compared Airbnb data to hotel data in the critical markets throughout the United States. According to the research, Phoenix saw year-over-year growth of about 175% in the number of Airbnb units in the third quarter of 2015.
Related: Top 5 Major Cities for Buy-and-Hold Investment Properties
For some, this bill is a blessing because it makes hosting and managing investment properties a lot easier. For others, this has caused trepidation because they value zoning laws and aren’t in favor of having different neighbors every few days. There also seems to be a fear of partying in these rentals. Based on the reactions to this bill, residents are not happy about being surrounded by people who are and act like they are on vacation.
The concerns of neighbors are valid and should be assessed. Perhaps the new bill will compel landlords and HOAs and hosts to work out an understanding since there is likely to be a growth in the number of Airbnb hosts and Airbnb investment properties. Maybe Airbnb hosts and investors can now include their neighbors and residents in their business by keeping them aware of the booking schedule, visitors’ profiles, and their property rules.
At this rate, more people are going to have to accept short-term rentals while hosts, investors, and Airbnb now have the responsibility of doing their part to make this transition a smooth one.
How do you feel about Arizona’s new bill? Are you an Airbnb host? What kind of expectations do you have with this new bill?