Cape Town - As alarming statistics around the number of Airbnb-listed properties in Cape Town have emerged, there have been increasing calls for regulations to protect local residents to ensure that they are not priced out of well-located areas near economic hubs.
According to Inside Airbnb, the Mother City has 23 564 properties listed - more than popular holiday destinations like Barcelona (18 086) Bangkok (20 823) - of which 19 280 or 81.8% of were entire homes or apartments.
Urban Policy researcher at land and housing non-profit organisation, Ndifuna Ukwazi (NU), Nick Budlender said: “This means that at least 19 280 homes in the best areas of the city are now effectively removed from the housing market entirely, which has significantly distorted rental prices and increased the number of homes which sit vacant for large parts of the year.”
According to the Airbnb site, there were no specific short-term rental regulations in South Africa.
It further said that in 2019, the City approved a by-law permitting shortterm letting from a house or flat for a period not exceeding 30 consecutive days for the same guest/ traveller.
According to Inside Airbnb, the average number of nights booked were 41 with an average of R2 385 per night. These figures were applicable for short term rentals. According to the site, 98.3% of listings in the Cape Town area were short-term rentals.
Some hosts on the platform had multiple listings with 60.1% multi listings for Cape Town. These included separate rooms in the same apartment or multiple apartments or homes.
There were at least three hosts in the City of Cape Town area with listings ranging between over 120 and 130 listings and four hosts with listings ranging between 95-98.
Any online rental website will show a large number of properties only available to rent around October when converted to Airbnbs, Budlender said.
“This totally erodes people's security and 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.”
Another issue of concern was that developers in the Cape Town CBD were building tiny apartments or micro apartments, he said.
Budlender said among the approaches that have been used to successfully regulate Airbnb and limit the harmful effects of short-term rentals include: taxation; limitations on the number of days an Airbnb can be rented out for; bans on multiple listings from one individual or company; imposition of proper systems for permitting and tracking Airbnbs; and limitations on the ability of entire homes to be rented out.
The City of Cape Town said short-term rentals are regulated on a landuse basis under the City’s Municipal Planning By-Law.
“It must be noted that a city’s total short-term holiday listings (on Airbnb or similar platforms) is not an indication of the number of active listings that otherwise may have constituted affordable housing.”
Western Cape Department of Economic Development and Tourism acting deputy director general, Ilse van Schalkwyk, said short-stay accommodation, was a critical part of infrastructure.
“We do not have sufficient bed nights through traditional short-stay accommodation to absorb the volume of visitors (both international and domestic) and we want to increase the international visitor arrivals by a million per annum from two million to three million by 2030 which will increase the demand for short stay accommodation across the province.”
Development Action Group (DAG) project coordinator Ryan Fester said regulations were needed due to the impact of short-term rentals on local residents.
“Some of those regulations could be curbing the increase in Airbnbs. Maybe promoting incentives for longer-term rentals than short-term rentals.”
“Areas like Woodstock, Salt River, Cape Town CBD, Camps Bay are seeing a dramatic increase in property prices because the Airbnb or short-term rental market has really created a competitive environment, and that is what’s keeping property prices so high.”
He said they were seeing more non-South Africans, with an influx of Germans and Irish, buying property and using it as an Airbnb listing.
“And that is exactly where the issue lies. Because it's used for Airbnb and then there are times when that housing stock is standing vacant because nobody has booked for it and literally just down the road you have a massive housing crisis going on.”