Sadiq Khan wants London licensing scheme to clamp down on short-term lets
More than 80,000 properties - many managed by letting agencies - are listed for short-term let in the Capital and London Mayor wants accountability and transparency from the sector.
Sadiq Khan wants the Government to step in and stop London’s housing supply being decimated by short-term lets.
The Mayor of London says online platforms such as Airbnb are fuelling the Capital’s housing crisis by sparking a rapid growth in short-term lets.
LISTINGS
At the beginning of July there were 81,792 listings in London on Airbnb alone. Of these, 50,401 were for entire properties, meaning at least one in every seventy-four homes in the capital is available for short-term let.
London is one of the tourism capitals of the world and short-term lets are a key part of the visitor ecosystem.
But due to a lack of sufficient regulation or resources for London’s 32 boroughs to monitor the situation nobody knows how many may be being let against the rules for more than 90 days a year.
The Mayor wants a licensing system for short-term lets that would allow local authorities to limit the numbers of licenses issued in their area and avoid entire streets or blocks being turned over exclusively to short- term lets.
COMPLIANCE FAILURE
Homeowners are entitled to rent out their homes for up to 90 days a year but it is possible that many property owners in London are breaching this restriction whilst boroughs do not have the resources to monitor compliance.
The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan says: “Short-term lets play an important role in London’s tourism industry but that mustn’t come at the expense of Londoners who need a place to live.
We need transparency about how many properties are being rented out.”
“We need transparency about how many properties are being rented out for longer than the rules permit and accountability to local authorities and residents.
“This is why I’m calling on the Government to work with me and borough councils to design a licensing system to bring some order to this rapidly growing sector and prevent us losing yet more homes for Londoners to the short-term let sector.”
The Neg reported last month how Sadiq Khan had repeated his call on the Government to urgently introduce a two-year rent freeze and banning Section 21 no-fault evictions.
The reason many landlords are now shifting to another system is the increddible self-defeating anti-landlord legislation that has been heaped upon Landlords over the past 10 years or more – with lots more to come.
This government has destroyed the BTL business model and has to now pick up the pieces. This lunatic (Khan) wants landlords (and any mortgaged home owver) crippled by doubling/trebbling of mortgages – whilst at the same time freezing rents – tell me KHAN, just how will that work?
This man hates London (and probably uK) – he is the worst Mayor London has had and probably worst in the Country.
His solution is to ban – rather than PLAN.
There is clearly a demand for short-lets, as the market has decided there is. Deal with it Khan by better planning and supply.