LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Mexico City is the latest major metropolitan area to impose restrictions on Airbnb, after New York and Barcelona. As Emily Green reports, soaring housing prices have displaced many longtime residents.
EMILY GREEN, BYLINE: There's a reason foreigners flock to Mexico City. It has balmy 70-degree weather year-round. There are tons of trees and terrific food and culture. Plus, it's relatively inexpensive, at least compared to cities like New York and Los Angeles.
MARICELA JASSO LOPEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
GREEN: "After the pandemic, we started to see a lot of tourism, digital nomads, and they came to stay," says Maricela Jasso Lopez, a retired schoolteacher. She's lived in the same two-bedroom apartment for 40 years, in the rapidly gentrifying neighborhood known as Roma, made famous by the Alfonso Cuaron film by the same name which was streamed around the world.
LOPEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
GREEN: "Pharmacies and bicycle repair shops were replaced by high-end restaurants and apartments catering to foreigners," she says. Then earlier this year, her landlord told her that she had until the end of the year to leave her apartment or pay half a million dollars. In this environment of rapid gentrification, Airbnb has become a focal point of anger.
FEDERICO TABOADA: The effects of Airbnb in Mexico City are quite toxic.
GREEN: Federico Taboada is director of Mexico City's Planning Institute and one of the architects of new Airbnb legislation. It restricts Airbnb units from being rented more than 180 nights a year.
TABOADA: Because of Airbnb and other facts, around 100,000 people leave the city because they can't afford to pay rent.
GREEN: Airbnb declined to give an interview for this story. But in a statement, it called the new law, quote, "an unjustified measure" and said that it reduces options for people living in the city.
SEAN CAZARES: The truth is that staying in an Airbnb shares tourism with the rest of the city.
GREEN: Sean Cazares (ph) represents companies that manage Airbnb and other short-term rentals in Mexico City. The number of Airbnb listings has grown 35% since right before the pandemic, according to AirDNA, which analyzes short-term rentals.
CAZARES: You are actually going out in the community. You're going to the local restaurants. You're using the local laundry.
GREEN: The highest concentration of Airbnbs in Mexico City are in two neighborhoods - Roma and neighboring Condesa - where it's almost as common to hear English as it is Spanish.
CHRISTIAN DE PUTRON: I love it - the weather, the people, also the cuisine.
GREEN: Christian De Putron moved from Europe to Mexico City four months ago on a modeling contract. And like many foreigners, he rented an Airbnb in Condesa. Prices in this neighborhood have nearly doubled since 2020, according to analysts.
DE PUTRON: I was paying maybe $1,400 for a month. One bedroom - I was in a shared accommodation with 10 other people.
GREEN: $1,400 a person with 10 other people?
DE PUTRON: It was an online working space. So there was a lot of digital nomads living there. The price was really extortion.
GREEN: Especially when you consider that 1,400 is more than the monthly average salary for Mexicans living in the capital. Still, several housing analysts interviewed by NPR say restricting Airbnb won't bring down prices, at least not by itself. Even Taboada, head of Mexico City's Planning Institute, says Airbnb is just one factor in the crisis. The biggest factor, he says, is a lack of new housing.
TABOADA: As a society, we demand around 80,000 units per year. But we only produce 6,000.
GREEN: He's trying to change that, but it's too late for Maricela Jasso Lopez. She moved out of her apartment of 40 years earlier this month under threat of eviction.
LOPEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
GREEN: "So many of us have been evicted. There's not space for everyone," she says. Around the corner from her old apartment, new luxury buildings are going up - housing for those that can afford it.
For NPR News, I'm Emily Green, in Mexico City.
(SOUNDBITE OF LES TRES' "THE GHOST IN YOUR SMILE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.