Airbnbs Are Eating Up This Puerto Rico Island Municipality

If you are one of the more than half a million tourists who visit Culebra each year, you have hundreds of options to rent from. You can overlook the turquoise waters of Flamenco Beach from an infinity pool next to a gigantic villa, or you can opt for a funky triangular shed with an outdoor shower. 

Short-term rentals like these place an overwhelming burden on small coastal towns in Puerto Rico, but Culebra is an outlier. The island municipality, with a population of about 1,700, has between 300 and 400 active Airbnb listings depending on the month, according to data from AirROI, which tracks Airbnb listings. This averages out to around 232 Airbnb accommodations per 1,000 residents. Some of these properties, such as Culebra Sunrise-Villa del Alba, generate nearly $300,000 in annual revenue, according to AirROI data. This data does not include rentals available on Vrbo or other sites. 

While Culebra is an extreme example of the displacement Puerto Rican residents suffer due to short-term rentals, it is far from the only one. Vieques, the neighboring island municipality, has 62.8 Airbnbs per 1,000 residents, while Rincón, another tourist hotspot, has 78.4 per 1,000 residents, according to AirROI data. Meanwhile, San Juan, the capital and municipality with the most listings, has a rate of 12.9. The rate for Old San Juan, where residents have waged a fight against short-term rentals, is around 102 listings.

In comparison, Lisbon, Portugal’s capital, which has battled its own Airbnb crisis, has a rate of around 42 listings. The rate for the historic Santa María Major parish is roughly 350 listings, according to data from Inside Airbnb, a watchdog organization that tracks short-term rentals.

But unlike residents of Lisbon or other chic European neighborhoods, Culebra’s residents can’t move to the peripheries. Their only choice is  to leave the small island municipality for the United States or Puerto Rico’s Isla Grande — the only island most people think of as being “Puerto Rico.” Census data shows that Culebra’s population has decreased by nearly 5 percent over the last 15 years. 

Culebra has no public housing units and only a few dozen subsidized long-term rental units that could ameliorate the lack of housing in the rental market, according to a 2021 study by the Center for a New Economy (CNE). The CNE report also shows that a 10 percent increase in short-term rentals causes a seven percent median rent increase and a 23 percent rise in housing unit prices, further locking people out of the rental and housing markets.

Culebra, in an effort to manage short-term rentals, recently passed a municipal ordinance requiring owners to list their properties as short-term rentals and pay to acquire yearly licenses. Census data from 2024 shows that 1,015 of 1,539 housing units (66 percent) are vacant in Culebra. Vacant housing units encompass both short-term rentals and vacation houses owned by people outside of Culebra.

This is the third wave of displacement Culebrenses have faced. The first was when the U.S. Navy expropriated land for military use, including fishing areas. After the military left, wealthy Puerto Rican land speculators bought up the vacated lands. But locals say the current wave of short-term rentals is different — and worse. 

According to Raúl Santiago Bartolomei, the professor and researcher at the University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras’s Graduate School of Planning, who was one of the CNE study’s authors, houses built in the past were meant to be vacation homes, while current short-term rentals are properties that were originally residential homes.

Younger people are particularly affected.

“A lot of families have left. Those who stay in Culebra have to live in cramped conditions, with two, three, or even four generations living under one roof,” Nicolás Gómez Andújar, a researcher with Mujeres de Islas, community organizer, and co-founder of the Culebra Fishermen’s Association, said. 

In 2010, when he was in school, Gómez Andújar was one of over 400. Now, there are only 136 students in Culebra’s public school, according to Education Department data. The population of people under 18 in Culebra diminished nearly 8 percent from 2010 to 2020, according to Census data. 

Vieques, Culebra’s sister island, experiences similar frustrations. 

“What’s for sale is priced ridiculously high. Even if you have a steady job here and are willing to take a chance by going to the bank, the bank won’t grant those loans based on the salaries we earn in Vieques,” Elda Lud Guadalupe Carrasquillo, co-founder of the agroecological farm La Colmeda Cimarrona, which fosters food sovereignty, said.

The government has promoted Puerto Rico as a vacation destination and has not taken steps to strictly regulate short-term rentals, unlike other cities that suffer from housing shortages, according to the CNE report. The only regulatory measure is a seven percent room tax that addresses the impact on traditional tourist lodgings such as hotels, but does not address the shortage of affordable housing. Additionally, the Puerto Rico Tourism Company does not keep an accurate count of inventory rented for less than three months, preventing the collection of this tax.

While Airbnbs have been promoted as a supplementary income source for residents, the CNE report indicates that most listings are managed by hosts with two or more listings, suggesting they dedicate themselves full-time to the short-term rental business.

“Nearly half of the hosts who have only one property do not generate and are unable to generate income,” Santiago Bartolomei said. “The key to success in this field is to have multiple housing units located in different parts of Puerto Rico. This is an activity that leads to concentration. It is not an economic activity that’s more open in terms of economic opportunities.”

Similarly, AirROI data shows that listings using professional management are a minority but generate more income than owner-managed properties. In San Juan, 297 listings, or 8 percent, make an average of $70,000, while 3,258, or 92 percent, make $39,000. 

“When you see that there are so many housing units that fail to generate income, you start to question the narrative that Puerto Rico needs more accommodation rooms, because if this concept is true. Why are there so many people who fail to generate income?” Santiago Bartolomei said.

Both Vieques and Culebra depend on the Isla Grande for basic services such as potable water, healthcare, electricity, and food. Tourism places a strain on these services, diminishing security and quality of life, according to Culebra’s municipal ordinance. The federal government recently gutted funding for solar energy projects that would have lowered costs. Vieques resident Sheila Sanabria suffered a heart attack in the ferry terminal when service was canceled. She had previously denounced the poor service to news stations because she lacked access to her medications. 

Community groups are finding ways to ameliorate the impact of short-term rentals. The Culebra Community Land Bank, for example, plans to rehabilitate abandoned properties declared public nuisances and sell them to residents. 

On the Isla Grande, some housing owner associations and private condominiums, including in wealthy gated communities, regulate or outright ban short-term rentals. But many Puerto Ricans remain angry at politicians’ lack of interest in addressing the problem. The Puerto Rican Senate has recently passed a bill that would require Airbnbs to register with municipalities. 

“There are no concrete solutions, or there are, but they don’t want to implement them because of politicking to impose an ideology that benefits the wealthy over the rest,” Gómez Andújar said. 

Cris Seda Chabrier is a bilingual reporter and photojournalist whose work has appeared in local and national outlets in both Puerto Rico and the United States. They graduated from the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.

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