Recently, the alarming number of Airbnb-listings in Cape Town has been brought to light.
The information has triggered an increasing call for regulations to protect local residents from being driven out of prime locations near economic hubs.
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IOL has reported that Cape Town has 23 564 properties listed on Airbnb.
Barcelona, a prominent holiday destination, is home to approximately 18 086 listings while Bangkok’s figure rests around 20 823.
The colossal amount of listings, results in 19 280 homes in sought-after areas of the city effectively being removed from the housing market.
This significantly distorts rental prices. It further increases the amount of homes which are unoccupied for large periods of time, according to Nick Budlender, an Urban Policy researcher at the non-profit Ndifuna Ukwazi.
The Airbnb site specifies that there were no fixed short-term rental regulations in South Africa.
The site also held that in 2019, the City passed a by-law which permitted short-term letting from a house or a flat for a period not exceeding 30 consecutive days for the same guest or traveller.
It has further been reported that 98.3% of listings in the Cape Town area were for short-term rentals at an average of R2385 per night.
Many hosts on the Airbnb platform have multiple listings, with approximately 60.1% located in Cape Town. Sometimes these listings are for separate rooms in the same apartment but they can also be for multiple apartments/homes.
There were at least three hosts with 120 to 130 listings and four hosts with 95 to 98 listings, in the Cape Town area.
Budlender further stated that many online rental websites showcase a large number of properties only available to rent around October, once converted to Airbnbs.
He comments that this erodes people’s security as well as their ability to live in stable housing.
‘The issue is not with individual owners who rent out a spare room or established B&Bs who now use Airbnb’s platform, but rather with the fact that the majority of Airbnbs are owned by people with several listings on the platform. Some individuals and companies have more than 150 listings’ says Budlender.
Taxation, limitations on the number of days an Airbnb can be rented out for, bans on multiple listings from one individual or company and the imposition of proper systems for permitting and tracking Airbnbs are potential solutions for Airbnb regulation.
It is important to note however, that the city’s total short-term holiday listings on platforms such as Airbnb, does not depict the number of active listings that otherwise may be considered ‘affordable housing.’
Ilse van Schalkwyk, the acting deputy director general of the Western Cape Department of Economic Development and Tourism, stated that short-stay accommodation was a crucial part of infrastructure as there is not sufficient beds to absorb the volume of visitors in the City.
The department also aims to increase the number of international visitors to approximately three million per annum by 2030 and this will increase the demand for short-stay accommodation across the province.
Ryan Fester, project coordinator for the Development Action Group, also called for regulations surrounding short-term rentals for the protection of locals.
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