short-term rentals

City Of Charleston Finally Approves Stricter Short-Term Rental Rules

Featured Image Credit: Meet Charleston

It seems like the discussion of short-term rentals in Charleston has been long and drawn-out. Well, that’s because it has.

It was four years ago when short-term rentals were introduced to the Charleston area, with online platforms like Airbnb and HomeAway becoming available to the general public. Since then, Charleston just hasn’t had the resources to keep up with or deal with the influx of 2,000 short-term properties across the Charleston area.

Over the last year, the city has been figuring out a strategy on how to deal with the issue. And this past Tuesday, a new set of rules that allows short-term rentals throughout the Charleston area, but with strict rules, guidelines, and requirements was finalized.

According to the Post and Courier, some of the short-term rental rules that would apply in all cases include the following:

Operators must obtain a special license from the city’s Department of Planning, Preservation and Sustainability and list the registration number on all online advertisements. They will have to present site plans to identify where guests would stay and park their cars.
To be eligible, operators must own and live on the property full time, determined by the 4 percent owner-occupied property tax assessment.
The short-term rental cannot host more than four adults at a time.
Operators must pay business license fees and accommodations taxes.

It creates separate sets of rules for three different areas:

Category 1 includes the Old & Historic Districts on the lower peninsula, but only properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places are eligible for a short-term rental permit.
Category 2 is for the rest of the peninsula, where properties have to be at least 50 years old. The class does not include the Cannonborough-Elliottborough neighborhood because it already has short-term rental rules in place.
Category 3 spans the rest of the city beyond the peninsula, where there will not be an age limit on properties.

There will be a 90-day grace period before these rules fully go into effect.

So what’s our take on it?

We’ve covered the short-term rental topic frequently, discussing how they rid our community of that “close-knit” feeling and create issues with traffic, parking, and noise. As a local, you also have the concern of tourists integrating into residential areas.

Effectively, it makes whole-house short-term rentals illegal. Which is why we are in favor of this decision.

The only way this is now an allowable use is when the property is owner-occupied (with the property tax assessment of 4%) and the owner is physically present on-site. It returns this type of rental to its original intent, which was being able to rent out a spare bedroom to generate some extra income.

The challenge became that people were buying up houses and condos in order to rent them on a nightly basis, which meant they were operating de facto hotels. This negatively affects the availability of housing stock and drives prices even higher, meaning fewer housing options for residents (and also much higher prices to lease or buy a place to live). With these new rules, people can no longer buy houses while living elsewhere just with the intention of renting them out.

Hopefully, these stricter rules can help alleviate the issues associated with tourist congestion, traffic, noise, etc.

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Short-Term Rentals Threaten Close Knit Charleston Communities

Featured Image Credit: Meet Charleston

At a recent City Council meeting, the topic was a familiar one: short-term rentals in Charleston. Both sides of the debate were represented, with some people wanting to cash in on the Airbnb trend and others worrying about the effects of tourists invading their neighborhoods.

HomeAway, a global giant in vacation rentals, has been pushing for legislation in favor of short-term rentals crying that limiting them would infringe on people’s property rights. But HomeAway doesn’t have Charleston’s best interests at heart.

When short-term rentals (which are currently illegal in most of the city) are allowed to flourish, neighborhoods are taken over by tourists who aren’t a part of that community. People living in those neighborhoods want to know their neighbors and form a family of sorts, not be greeted by a revolving door of strangers.

There are currently an estimated 1,500 illegal rentals, though HomeAway currently lists about 3,200 rentals in Charleston County. This isn’t the “little guy” trying to make ends meet by renting out a room, this is a multi-national corporation coming in and changing the landscape of Charleston’s communities and hiking up housing costs for those who call the city a permanent home.

Charleston, with its mix of historic charm and modern amenities, is a great place to live. Let’s not ruin it by letting money-hungry corporations take over the place we call home.

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Charleston Planning Commission Gives Short-Term Rentals The Green Light

Featured Image Credit: Landon Martin on Unsplash

The Charleston Planning Commission just took steps that may make short-term rentals in whole houses part of Charleston’s future indefinitely. The commission voted on lifting the ban on whole house short-term rentals in the Lowcountry. The vote was 7-2 in favor of getting rid of the ban.

This stance on short-term rentals could be detrimental to the Charleston area and its residents. The planning commission’s recommendation was to limit short-term rentals to owner-occupied residences. The rentals can be offered for no more than 72 days. However, this presents an enforcement issue. Big businesses could still profit from short-term rentals if the ordinance is not strictly enforced.

Residents who spoke at the planning commission’s meeting were overwhelmingly opposed to the whole house short-term rental proposal and voiced concerns about it destroying their sense of community. They want to live in neighborhoods among fellow long-term inhabitants and not be surrounded by de facto hotels.

Image Credit: Erol Ahmed on Unsplash

In addition to hurting communities, the short-term rental game hurts people who want to secure long-term housing in the Charleston area. Short-term rentals drive the prices for long-term rentals or ownership because there are a limited number of available residences. If individuals or companies can profit more from short-term rentals, then that residence is unavailable for short term rentals and the value of those residences left are driven up. This makes living in Charleston almost impossible for anyone other than the wealthy.

Whole house short-term rentals have been an increasing problem in the last few years. In October of 2014, there were 140 entire unit (house, condo, apartment) rental listings in the Charleston area. As of May 2017, there were 969 entire unit rental listings. That is twice the number of guest rooms of Charleston Place Hotel, one of the many hotels losing business because of short-term rentals.

Just on the peninsula alone, there has been a huge increase in the number of listings from April 2015 to April 2017. In April 2015 there were 150 listings and in April 2017 there were 534 listings. That’s an increase of 265%. These are now homes that are unavailable to long-term residents.

The Charleston Planning Commission’s decision is just a recommendation. They will update the ordinance and vote on it again at a later date. If it is voted on favorably, then it will go on for approval from the City Council. And the City Council can choose to accept it, amend it, or reject it when they vote.

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New Short-Term Rental Regulations Are Beginning To Take Shape

Featured Image Credit: The Cassina Group

Short-term rentals have been a hot topic of debate in Charleston in the last couple years. Progress has been slow from the group tasked with crafting a new set of rules to govern the short-term rentals across Charleston. But now the 18 member group has been working on a proposal of what they’d like to see in a new ordinance that they will present to the city’s Planning Commission later this year.

Many of the short-term rentals in Charleston have been operating illegally under the current rules, therefore the Short-Term Rental Task Force needs to decide who should and who should not be allowed to rent under their new proposal. They are on a time crunch and hope to get the new recommendations for the proposal straightened out and ready to send to Planning Commission by September of this year. City Planner Jacob Lindsey told the task force that it might not be sent until October as they have to process the new proposals and make an ordinance draft.

Right now, short-term rentals in Charleston are allowed only in commercially zoned portions of the Cannonborough-Elliotborough neighborhood. However, this restriction has not stopped property owners in other sections of the city from participating in short-term rentals. The task force arrived at an agreement that those hoping to receive a short-term rental allowance should call the rental property their primary residence. However, they are still in disagreement on what a primary residence constitutes.

Image Credit: Airbnb

One of the members of the task force, Ann Hester Willis, suggested that a person is only allowed to rent out a portion of their home after residing in their property for at least 275 days. Another suggestion to verify owner occupation would require the rented property to be listed as a primary residence on the resident’s tax forms. The task force members also proposed that the owners must be at their home during short-term rentals. They were also able to reach an agreement on setting a limit on the number of guests allowed in a short-term rental. However, debate over what constitutes a unit and parking requirements followed.

The task force is set to meet again on August 8th and an additional meeting is in the works to focus solely on the feedback from the community. A major concern of local Charlestonians with short-term rentals is that the sense of community and neighborhoods will be lost with so many different people coming in and out, losing consistency.

Image Credit: Claire Haines via Charleston City Paper

The final topic of debate on Tuesday was how old a home can be to serve as a short-term rental? According to Kristopher King, the executive director of the Preservation Society of Charleston, federal guidelines state that a property must be 50 years or older to be considered historic. A task force member suggested that a three-year timeframe be used before short-term rentals are allowed on the property. While no specific age was decided, concerns were raised that the higher the age requirement, the more rentals that would be sidelined in the city. Locations like James Island and Johns Island would not meet these age requirements and some of the most supportive areas of short-term rental would be excluded.

The big increase in short-term rentals in Charleston has most definitely had a big impact and effect on the city and the community. It will be interesting to see what the task force comes out with after their meeting on August 8th and how the public will react.

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Short-Term Rental Business Continues To Create Growing Issues In Charleston

Featured Image Credit: Airbnb

It’s out with the old and in with the new, the “new” being short-term rental businesses. Airbnb has taken the hospitality market by storm, helping tourists book 3,600 nights in Charleston over the recent Memorial Day Weekend, a 58 percent increase since last year.

However, the City of Charleston’s zoning codes prohibit short-term rentals in most areas of downtown, only allowing a portion of the Cannonborough-Elliotborough neighborhood to legally work with Airbnb and their competitors. These strict codes and regulations have resulted in at least 63 residential property owners being sued for operating illegal short-term rentals in the city.

Image Credit: Airbnb

Charleston is one of the top cities in the world, attracting millions of tourists annually. This type of marketplace allows for short-term rental platforms to thrive, with around 500 properties on Airbnb. Homeowners will put their rentals online, avoiding the city’s zoning rules, and then services like Airbnb will act as agents for the renters, benefitting from a percentage of the rental price.

But what’s so wrong with homeowners earning some easy, quick money? In an already heavily populated city, Charleston parking, traffic, and noise are suffering from the short-term rental company’s growth along with the disappearance of neighborhoods and growing issues of tourists integrating into residential areas. Not to mention a shortage of housing for long term tenants could result. Therefore, to avoid an over capacity and dwindling Charlestonian population, the city regulates where companies like Airbnb are allowed jurisdiction.

Image Credit: Airbnb

Often times services like Airbnb avoid having to pay for business licenses and accommodation taxes, causing issues with other rental companies and hotel businesses. But many people believe that it is ultimately the property-owners right to decide how they manage their home.

Because Charleston is such a unique city where tourists and residents interact closely, it is important to find a healthy balance of economic growth and appreciation for tourism while also keeping in mind the resident’s quality of life.