“The rent is too damn high!” I love that line by Jimmy McMillan, who said it during a debate while he was running for governor of New York State.
It turns out Jimmy McMillan could have also been talking about the recent price hikes of Puerto Rico’s short-term rentals.
Supply and demand is a tricky thing in economics. Puerto Rico has seen a rise in tourism, and short-term rentals have spiked as Puerto Rican home owners have stepped up to meet demand by renting out their properties. The insatiable rental demands have caused rental prices to jump up.
Now, with rental prices up, your average citizen of Puerto Rico is facing higher rental prices.
The Center for a New Economy and the Graduate School of Planning of the University of Puerto Rico came out with a study that found that a 10% rise in the number of short-term rentals in a community increases housing rental costs by 7% and the property value per square foot by 23%.
Now tourism has become a double-edged sword impacting Puerto Rico’s economy. By boosting short-term rentals to feed the needs of tourism, it is not affecting Puerto Rico’s residents and communities.
Puerto Rico’s short-term rentals spike comes at a cost, report finds