Ryan Bembridge is editor of PropertyWire
The government has unveiled plans to make it so homeowners will need to seek planning permission before they are able to list their properties on Airbnb – and it’s about time.
Intervention into Airbnb was inevitable, as the tenure has become more profitable than the long-term rental market in areas where there are few void periods.
Of course, this trend has been worsened by government policy. In particular the move to eliminate mortgage income tax relief has made it harder for landlords to make a strong return with regular buy-to-let.
Indeed, that’s why some investors have evicted their tenants, only to put their properties back on the market as an Airbnb – it’s harsh on tenants, but when there’s higher profits on offer there’s a strong incentive.
Tim Farron, MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale, has long been vocal on the issue, saying in January 2022: “The ease with which people can turn a home into a holiday let is part of the problem. The consequences are phenomenal. The people I am speaking about are real human beings. What it means for them is that they have to leave the area.”
As Farron underlines, the problem with short-term lets being so dominant is they push locals out, ruining the character that attracts people to visit some places anyway. We don’t want areas like Cornwall and the Lake District to become glorified museums – places where locals used to live but now are dominated by tourists.
One detail of the government’s upcoming legislation is it’s not looking to crack down on Airbnb completely. Indeed, people who want to let out their homes for a specific number of nights per year will be able to do so without planning permission.
I think this is a positive move, as it enables people to use Airbnb casually to make a few pounds rather than having short-term lets be dominated by professional investors. If somebody living in a holiday hotspot has a spare house for a few weeks a year, it makes sense to enable them to let it out.
Finding the right balance between housing tenures is the key, as well as creating new housing stock, depending on the area.
Limited stock is always going to be an issue in some holiday destinations: You can’t build a plethora of homes in somewhere like the Yorkshire Dales as it would ruin the character that attracts people in the first place, so controlling the supply of short-term lets is necessary.
However in some towns and cities the priority still needs to be encouraging new housing supply so there’s ample choice, whether you want to rent, buy or holiday in a property using Airbnb.
In an ideal world the government wouldn’t need to step in to monitor and control the supply of housing tenures, but at least the authorities are finally facing up the reality that sometimes less is more when it comes to Airbnb.
