Air BNB is a good move for cash strap owner.
Singapore government claims that they are always business welcoming, innovative, forward looking. etc etc ..
But in the end when it eat into their beloved hotels, they scream Thief. Thief need to be dealt with severely. Hence 2 Singaporean got the stick meted out.
in sf, airbnb helps cash-strapped buyers and speculators of expensive homes with their mortgage payments and provides some side income. but it is very disruptive to long time renters. in the first place, buyers/speculators who cannot afford $2m condos and $3m townhomes shouldn't be borrowing super jumbo loans to pay for these over-valued fixer-uppers in a housing bubble. to pay for $6.9k a month mortgages renting out a 2-bedroom condo or townhome at $4k per month (market rate) on 1-year lease will not cut it anymore. airbnb will easily pay them $230 a day which equates to about $6.9k a month. this beats a couple of hotel rooms if the airbnb tenants are a family or group of 4 and above. a hotel room in sf can cost as much as $250 a day, $300-$400 a day during conventions. in the sf situation it complements and helps to alleviate the chronic shortage of hotel rooms as tourist season is practically year round. however, long term renters who have lived in sf for decades find themselves priced out of the market. landlords find rent-control loopholes and the help of the ellis act to evict long time tenants and convert properties to airbnb rentals and or high-rent condos and apartments. what you get are lowly paid artists, dancers, musicians, cooks, teachers, barristas, waitresses, freelancers and bohemians who grace the cityscape and make sf what it is today evicted and forced out into the streets homeless and unable to find rent that is affordable. eventually they will leave sf, and the city will turn into the have's and have-not's: well paid techies able to pay rent on one side and drunk, substance-abused, lunatic homeless beggars on the other side. it's becoming that way, and i have plenty of pics to prove it. meanwhile, the artists, dancers, musicians, chefs, cooks are moving to west oakland where rent is more affordable. and the niggers there are chased out and they move to east oakland, richmond, san pablo, antioch, further to the east.
