The Rental Revolution: What is the Sharing Economy doing to the PRS?

Summary

As the way in which we do business changes, the ‘sharing economy’ is on the rise in the UK. More and more people are now using sites such as Airbnb to rent out homes as an alternative to staying in a hotel, with more than 33,000 listings in London alone.

This research report explores the extent of the use of Airbnb and its impact on the private rented sector. Two sources of data are presented. Firstly, to understand the use of Airbnb in London we conducted an analysis of Airbnb listings from insideairbnb.com. Secondly, we used a survey of landlords to explore their experiences of tenants who had sub-let through Airbnb or a similar platform.

The findings highlight the negative impact of this technological revolution. From 33,715 Airbnb listings in London, 65% were available for more than 90 days per year. In addition, 64% of entire homes/apartment listings were available for more than 90 days per year (11,296 listings), with an estimated annual revenue of £144,227,328.

Not only is this unlawful in relation to the current planning regulations, it is removing housing from the market, while individuals are capitalising on the lack of housing supply. A more striking finding was that 39% of entire homes/apartments were multi-listings (where the hosts have more than one listing), and 78% of these were available for more than 90 days. This further confirms the way in which businesses are capitalising on this change and preventing those in need of homes from securing a place to live.

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