Airbnb and other short-term rental firms and services have been legalized in San Francisco, but the city board will regulate some of the rental services.

The regulation of short-term stays comes at a time where San Francisco is struggling with housing shortages and higher prices for buying or renting than ever before.

Like Us on Facebook

Regulating short-term stays will hopefully push the market away from total Airbnb control. Most of the regulation hits the house owner renting out the property. The regulations set up a public registry with the city board for $50 and pledge to abide by the 90-day rule.

This means the person who owns the household and maintains rent will have to fill out the necessary paperwork and make sure clients don't stay over 90 days. This does take a weight off Airbnb that can't properly police all of their app users.

One of the laws specific to San Francisco is the Ellis Act, which allows tenants to continue to rent a place for as long as they like if they continue to pay rent on time. This has created a culture of lifetime tenancy, which might be part of the reason for the large housing deficit.

The new regulation stops a new law enacted in California in the 1980s that allows landlords to take their properties out of the market and "go out of business" just to come back and set up permanent rented houses or Airbnb rentals.

All of the regulation on Airbnb may hurt them in the short-term, but the city board denied a few things, like taxing US$25 million from Airbnb and cap hosted rentals to 90-days, as well. Both would've hurt Airbnb even further, but David Chiu, President of Supervisors, denied both of these moves.

Airbnb is currently valued at around US$10 billion, and is one of the fastest growing startups that came directly out of San Francisco.

TagsAirbnb, San Francisco, rental, housing crisis