Host or not Host. Airbnb user or not everyone in Australia and certainly Sydney does know about Airbnb and has an opinion on it. There is love there is hate and every emotion in between.
Property owners of course find it alluring and are intrigued by the potential for their investment but they are also confused. Are they allowed to rent their property out short term? What will the neighbors say? What are the actual rules and regulations surrounding this still pretty new industry?
Communities are worried about their ability to find suitable rentals for themselves and the safety and feel of the suburb as a whole.
So that’s why today we are talking about the impact of Airbnb in Sydney.
Firstly lets look at some statistics. The media is portraying it as if all of Sydney is being taken over by Airbnb but upon closer inspection you will see, percentage wise they still make up only a very minor portion of the market.
Sydney has, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics 1.723.062 dwellings. Currently around 22.000 of those are listed on Airbnb that’s a minute 1.28% of all dwellings.
Even when we drill down into suburb level for example Bondi or Manly you will see that the percentage is pretty small. It actually lies at 2.45 % and 1.81% retrospectively. In addition what needs to be taken into consideration is that more than half of those dwellings are only rented out an average of 28 nights per year. This is due to people renting their space out only when they are on vacation themselves or on a room by room basis.
Secondly lets look at the impact of those places being occupied by travellers. Most would agree that most travellers can be considered middle or upper class.
They are educated and most of them own their own homes in their countries of residence. They are open minded to different cultures and especially when they choose to stay in an Airbnb they want to learn about and immerse themselves within a local community.
They have to pay upfront and in relation to the time they actually spend at the property they most of the time have to put up a quite substantial deposit.
They also generally spend quite a bit of money in the local community and therefore support local businesses.
Considering all of the above what can be concluded is that, as with anything new there is a lot of uncertainty and people need time to adapt and change.
Not only we, but also Airbnb and the local governments are hearing your concerns no matter from what end you look at this new way of traveling and everyone is working hand in hand to embrace this new industry with as much grace as possible and with the lowest impact on locals.
Landlords should not be worried about prosecution from neighbors or councils alike and neither should current renters go into a tailspin of worry that they will lose their home. With new rules and regulations being written as we speak and more people choosing to engage a short-term rental agency like AirKeeper here in Sydney the industry will only become more and more enjoyable for everyone the longer it exists.
So embrace it…After all, sharing is caring and how could we possibly bring the world and people closer together then to sharing our homes with them and integrating them into our local communitiesanagement Sydney.
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