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No evidence to link housing scarcity and short-term lets, says Airbnb senior manager
There is “no evidence” linking the shortage of housing in the country and the increasing number of short-term lets, a senior manager at short-term let giant Airbnb has said.
Amanda Cupples, general manager of Airbnb Northern Europe, made the claim during a session of the House of Lords’ Built Environment Committee, saying there is a “very strong emotional feeling” that short-term lets contribute to the housing crisis but the evidence was scarce.
She said: “The reality is, we don’t know very much. There is actually no evidence base that has drawn any link whatsoever between short-term accommodation and housing scarcity.”
She was sitting in front of members of the committee, which is conducting an inquiry into the impact of short-term lettings on local communities and housing markets. It is also looking into the full regulation of the sector.
Members grilled Ms Cupples, Merilee Karr, chair of UK Short Term Accommodation Association (UKSTAA), and Fiona MacConnacher, public affairs manager at Booking.com, about whether short-term lets were removing properties from the market that could otherwise be used for long-term homes.
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Lord Best said he had spoken to Capital Letters, an organisation set up in 2019 by some London councils to find private landlords which have homes that can be let at Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates and to partner them with local authorities.
He said the organisation told him that the market is “just drying up”, with landlords preferring to let their homes on a short-term basis.
A survey by MP for North Devon Selaine Saxby was also raised, which showed that there were 360 Airbnb properties to let in her constituency, compared with only one long-term property available for rent on Rightmove.
Baroness Bakewell said she had conducted her own research with estate agents and found that “quite a number of them” said “they all go to people that want to rent them out”.
“That it’s really hard for a young couple to buy a small property in central London because other people are there ahead of them buying to add to their portfolio of flats to let,” she said.
Ms Cupples said Airbnb has been calling for a short-term accommodation register and “awaits eagerly the implementation of that”.
The government is looking at setting up a holiday lets register for England to understand the full impact of platforms such as Airbnb, amid concerns over a lack of affordable housing.
Commenting on Ms Saxby’s survey, Ms Cupples said it is “dangerous to cherry-pick” and that the methodology of the research was “inherently flawed”.
She added: “Primarily because they assume that every listing on Airbnb is a house that would be available for long-term accommodation.
“And particularly when you get into these vacation rental markets… they are barns, they are annexes, they are private rooms, sometimes they are yurts.”
It is therefore “vital to have a consistent, transparent, robust evidence base to help policymakers actually make these decisions”, Ms Cupples stated.
