Airbnbs are primed to take over Miami, which is already facing a housing crunch

These units may not be exclusively advertised for short-term stays, CEO of ISG World Craig Studnicky told Business Insider but were grouped by little to no rental restrictions for future owners.

That means these units could, and very likely may, be used for Airbnb and similar purposes, Studnicky explained.

“We’ve had a development industry that is adding more short-term rentals to South Florida inventory,” Studnicky told BI. “And that’s not what we need.”

Florida has continued to experience a major population boom and was the fastest-growing state between 2021 and 2022, with 417,000 new residents. Housing prices, in tandem, skyrocketed. The median sales price for a home in Miami hit $600,000 in March 2024, nearly double the median price of $335,000 in March 2020, according to Redfin.

It’s rocked affordability in Miami, where there is currently a $1.5 billion gap to provide adequate, affordable housing for the entirety of Miami-Dade County, according to a study by the nonprofit Miami Homes for All. Altogether, the county is missing over 90,000 affordable units for renters making less than $75,000 a year, the study concluded.

Developers in the Miami region should focus on creating more traditional rentals to alleviate pressure in the market, Studnicky believes.

The ISG World report states more than 10,000 traditional rental units for Miami-Dade and Broward counties are scheduled in pre-construction, a process that will take many years to complete. In the past 10 years, Studnicky estimates a much more robust 20,000 traditional rental units were built in Miami.

“That’s the number that we need just to accommodate the population gains,” he told Business Insider.