19.01.2021, 08:53

Airbnb Distorting Rental Housing Market

Short-term rentals on Airbnb and other online vacation rental marketplaces are causing rent increases in the longer term lettings market according to new research from the University of Cologne.

The study into the impact of short-stay lets was led by Felix Mindl and Dr Oliver Arentz who identified a rise in the number of properties being put on the market for short-term rentals from 500 to almost 6,200 during the last five years alone as the key factor over the last decade.

41 per cent of the short lets studied were classified as professional lettings and, in 65 per cent of cases, involved landlords who owned multiple property interests.

The average income from short-term rentals in the city was also found to exceed that of long-term rentals after properties were booked for only 90 days.

Another key finding correlated the impact of short-term rentals on the longer term rental market, attributing 14.2 per cent of overall rent increases within the study period to short-term rentals, and finding they resulted in annual rent increases of around €320 for new tenants.

Study author, Felix Mindl, comments: “Whilst a large proportion of hosts can be considered home sharers, we find an increasing proportion of providers who have developed a professional business model from short-term rentals.

“Professional short-term rentals are available to tourists throughout the year and thus compete directly with long-term tenants, for whom the rooms are then no longer available.” 

Mindl and Arentz are advocating a registration process for hosts to improve transparency in short-term rental markets across Europe.