It’s been just about six months since New York City placed major restrictions on short-term rental properties like Airbnb — and North Jersey is reaping the benefits.

In September, New York City enacted the Short-Term Rental Registration Law. The policy requires short-term rental hosts to register their property to the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement and prohibits booking service platforms from facilitating transactions for unregistered short-term rentals. Additionally, hosts on platforms like Airbnb cannot rent out an entire apartment or home for bookings of less than 30 days, and instead can only rent out a room in a space that permanent residents are living in.

Because of this, there are now fewer than 5,000 short-term rentals on Airbnb in New York City, according to Inside Airbnb, a housing advocacy group that compiles data from Airbnb’s website. In contrast, there are more than 34,000 rentals available for stays of 30 days or more — which do not require registration for short-term rental licenses.

While there has not be an increase in short-term rental listings in New Jersey, these restrictions have created a higher demand for short-term rentals here as visitors consider other options for places to stay nearby.

In fact, areas like Jersey City, Hoboken, Weehawken and Union City have seen a dramatic increase in demand for short-term rentals because of their proximity to New York City and their ability to offer quick access to Manhattan. According to AirDNA — a short-term rental intelligence firm — demands for short-term rentals rose by 84% in Jersey City, 59% in Weehawken, 40% in Union City and 35% in Hoboken in February 2024 compared to this time last year.

The policy was created to free up housing that was being used as short-term rentals to create more long-term housing solutions and mitigate rising rent prices in New York City. But, rents increased by 2.3% in January and available rental inventory decreased by 9.2% since August, according to Apartment List.

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Airbnb said that the approach taken by New York City was extreme, and has resulted in more short-term rental activity on unregulated platforms and a drastic increase in hotel prices. As a result, 65% of people said they’re less likely to visit New York City in a recent survey conducted by Airbnb. They said this not only affects city residents who relied on income from short-term rental hosting, but also small businesses in outer boroughs that are seeing less visitors since the policy began.

“A recent survey found guests are less likely to visit New York city because of rising hotel prices and a drop in accommodation options following implementation of the city’s short-term rental rules,” a spokesperson for Airbnb said.

Maddie McGay is the real estate reporter for NorthJersey.com and The Record, covering all things worth celebrating about living in North Jersey. Find her on Instagram @maddiemcgay, on X @maddiemcgayy, and sign up for her North Jersey Living newsletter. Do you have a tip, trend or terrific house she should know about? Email her at MMcGay@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Short-term rental demand rises in NJ after NYC restricts Airbnb