Boycott Airbnbs to solve the short lets problem, editor urges

The new editor of an influential newspaper property supplement has come up with a way of solving what she calls “the fraught issue of holiday lets” - boycotting them.

Carol Lewis, the new property editor at the Sunday Times, wrote yesterday that: “If everyone who claims to be opposed to second homes and holiday lets refused to sell to buyers with such aspirations and vowed never to rent a holiday home again the market would collapse. All but the most wealthy landlords would sell up or switch back to long-term letting. Job done.”

The idea came at the end of an opinion piece by Lewis looking at what she called the “divisive” issue of Airbnb and other short-term letting platforms. 

She says that on the one hand most people wouldn’t disagree with someone letting a spare room occasionally but many disagree with those who let entire homes in the same way, especially if they are considered to have diminished stock from the long-term lettings market. 

But Lewis adds that public distaste for this is only temporary, saying: “That is until they want to stay in a holiday house in places such as Cornwall, north Norfolk, the Lake District. Then they seem happy enough.”

She cites familiar statistics about the reduction in long-term lets in popular holiday areas, coinciding with the proliferation of short lets on Airbnb and rival platforms, and raises the much-debated problem of enforcement of other so-called solutions - like insisting on planning consent for short lets, and licensing via local or central government registers.

Lewis adds that a recent House of Lords committee looked at the issue and recommended precisely those measures but she ponders: “If the Lords recommendations are put in place we will find that in some areas of England there will be short-let registers and planning restrictions, and in some there won’t be. Where there are registers and restrictions councils will need to charge enough (and hike council tax) to fund enforcement — a cost landlords are likely to pass on to customers.”

Before she comes to her suggestion of a boycott of Airbnb and holiday lets by sellers and tourists, she says: “The Lords are right: there needs to be registers and restrictions, and all homeowners need to be made to pay towards the local council’s services. We need to collate data on the effect of holiday lets on local rents, house prices, employment and tourism.”

We're excited to announce that we're working on building a shiny new website for readers of Landlord Today! As part of this process, commenting on articles will be temporarily disabled. We look forward to sharing our new and improved Landlord Today website with you shortly!