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Latest property news
Airbnb to restrict ‘entire home’ rentals to 90 days in another UK city
Airbnb has offered to restrict the period landlords can rent out their properties in Edinburgh to 90 days a year, copying a similar ban it introduced in London last year following criticism of its business model. In London, from January 2017 any ‘entire home’ listing has been limited automatically by the company’s software to a maximum 90 days total per calendar year. This has now been mooted in Edinburgh by the Californian company in a submission it made to a expert panel set up by the Scottish government due to publish its findings next week. Airbnb: ‘commercial’ lets? Criticisms of the way landlords use Airbnb in Edinburgh echo those made in London; that too many landlords are buying properties with the express purpose of renting them out via the platform. This, says Green MSP Andy Wightman (pictured, left), means Airbnb is being used “as a route to market by commercial operators who see it as a very cheap way of advertising the availability of a flat, which is used 100% of the year for commercial short-term letting,” he told the BBC. Wightman says this is far from its original purpose, which was to enable home owners to make extra cash…
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Agencies & People
Major UK agent signs up to rent empty properties via Airbnb
Franchised agency network Hunters is piloting a scheme in Manchester that will enable its landlord and vendor clients to rent out their properties via Airbnb and other short-term rental sites. The first properties to be offered for short-term rent are within Bracken House (pictured, right), a development of apartments within the city centre. The new service is a partnership with Lavanda.co.uk, which has launched an agent version of its property management service to facilitate the deal. Hunters says the Manchester pilot has been a “great success” and will be rolled across the national Hunters 200-branch network over the next 12 months. Properties must be let out for a minimum of two nights and will be managed by Lavanda including a furnishing service for empty properties, tenant vetting, hotel-style housekeeping, face-to-face check-ins and a 24-7 concierge service. Lavanda will also advertise the properties, it says, via all the major short-term rental websites including Airbnb, Booking.com, HomeAway and Expedia. “Much to the frustration of vendors, the recent slow sales market has led to swathes of prime property sitting empty,” says Guy Westlake, CEO of Lavanda (pictured, left). “This has not only resulted in landlords suffering a significant loss of income, but [for…
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Latest property news
Short-term online rental service launches
A service that enables sales and lettings agents to make money from short term rentals using prime properties that are awaiting sale or long-term lets has been unveiled. Lavanda.co.uk, which specialises in ‘super short-term’ upmarket rentals, has launched a version of its service just for agents, claiming to be the first of its kind within the property sector. The company claims its service will enable agents to make money from vacant properties at a time when many are worrying about generating revenue after the tenant fees ban is introduced next year, and that the service is fully compliant with existing UK law. Lavanda prices up empty properties for agents and then rents them out and says it can also put furniture temporarily into unfurnished properties. It will also vet potential short-term tenants, provide “hotel-style housekeeping”, a 24-7 concierge service and someone to meet and greet tenants when they arrive. Short-term rentals Properties will be advertised on the main short-term rental websites including Airbnb, Booking.com, HomeAway and Expedia. The service will be rolling out in London at first but is expected to go nationwide next year within cities. Lavanda recently raised £1.5 million in funding from investors including Sir Terry Leahy,…
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Latest property news
Govt tax changes driving landlords into the arms of Airbnb, says RLA
The government’s recent tax changes for landlords are pushing more and more of them out of the long-term rental market and into the arms of short-term websites such as Airbnb, research by the Residential Landlords Association (RLA) has found. Its data ‘lab’ PEARL says one of the UK’s hotspots for this phenomenon is Cardiff, where the number of landlords offering properties via sites like Airbnb has increased by 259% over the past 12 months. The RLA also says that its research points to one in five properties rented out within the Welsh capital are now short-term, rather than long-term lets. Airbnb bookings The research follows the RLA’s disclosure earlier this year that one in three Airbnb landlords were those driven out of the traditional rental sector by the recent tax change for landlords. “With the tax changes incentivising the use of homes as short-term holiday lets it is tenants who will suffer as fewer properties are available for them rent for the long term,” says Douglas Haig, RLA Vice-Chair and Director for Wales (pictured, left). “The Government wants longer term security for tenants, especially families, and landlords support this, but they need to change their tax policy to achieve it.”…
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Latest property news
Exclusive: Airbnb ‘whole property’ listings rise by a third in just 12 months
The number of whole homes being rented out via Airbnb has increased by 31% over the past year, latest data shown to The Negotiator reveals. These figures are for London, the key market for Airbnb in the UK, where there were 29,476 properties available to rent during October, up from 22,400 the year before. This is also more than four times the number of ‘whole home’ listings compared to November 2014 when US-based consultancy AirDNA began collecting data. These ‘whole property’ listings are contentious because they can be in direct competition with traditional lettings, despite efforts to limit them. 90 day limit Airbnb earlier this year limited the number of total nights a property can be rented out during a calendar year to 90 to conform with Section 44 of the Deregulation Act 2015, which requires any landlord exceeding that limit to seek permission to do so. Although Airbnb’s system automatically limits a property’s account once it goes over 90 days of bookings, landlords can override it by confirming via a weblink form that they have the relevant permission from their local London council – no proof is required. Airbnb says this information including the listing address can be shared…
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Latest property news
Hammond reveals rethink on rent-a-room scheme after Airbnb growth
A review of the rent-a-room scheme hidden in last week’s Budget announcement may have big consequences for the growing number of online short-term letting companies such as Airbnb and SpareRoom. The announcement, which was hidden in the budget text and not referred to during the Chancellor during his speeach in Parliament on Wednesday reveals that the government is to review the ‘rent-a-room’ tax relief given to home owners who let single room within their properties. Tax experts believe the government is likely to set a minimum number of days that a tenant must stay in the property to attract the zero rate of tax on any income. Introduced in 1992 rent-a-room relief enables home owners to earn up to £7,500 a year tax free from letting out a spare room in their home, which was raised last year from £4,250. Rent-a-room scheme But the scheme has helped prompt the rapid rise of short-term online room rental sites, in particular Airbnb – which now offers over 25,000 private rooms to rent in London, data from consultancy Airdna shows. The Budget announcement reveals that the government believes the relief, which was designed to enable struggling home owners to earn tax-free income and…
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Latest property news
Airbnb trials sharing rental fee income with landlords
Airbnb in the US has struck a deal with a major build-to-rent landlord in its home city of San Francisco to share profits when tenants sub-let their homes via its home-sharing service. Veritas Investments, which owns and manages over 200 mainly Art Deco buildings containing some 5,000 apartments within the city, is to pilot a scheme that will enable some of its tenants to rent out their apartments via Airbnb, which will then share its fees with the company in return. A separate property management company called Pillow Residential will then handle the bookings and change overs. Five blocks that include 100 apartments in the city belonging to Veritas are included in the pilot scheme and the company is to take 10% cut of any vacation rental fees generated by Airbnb bookings. “If you look at the business models of the 1980s and 1990s you had very clear boundaries, but when you look at companies like Airbnb you realise they are both collaborating and competing on different levels – so it’s not a clear like is used to be, and may never be again,” says James Morris-Manuel, EMEA Director at 3D viewings firm Matterport. More affordable Veritas told The San…
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Latest property news
Is Airbnb more of a threat than Purplebricks?
Many traditional high street worry about the threat from online and hybrid agencies, but a new digital competitor is fast establishing itself too – the Airbnb management company. The biggest in the UK is GuestReady, a proptech startup that offers a management service to owners of Airbnb properties. It has today announced that it has raised £2.3 million in seed funding to expand its business outside London. The company, which recently acquired London-based competitor Easy Rental Services, has told The Negotiator that it now has 300 properties under management in the capital. The new funding for GuestReady also includes some heavyweight backing from famous venture capitalists including Impulse VC, which is backed by Roman Abramovich and Xponova, backed by LastMinute.com CEO Fabio Cannavale (pictured, let). The rapid spread of Airbnb and management companies like GuestReady which manage properties on owners’ behalves, has begun to worry many agents as Airbnb begins to eat into the short-term rental market in many cities, once the preserve of traditional letting agents. Airbnb hosts are not supposed to rent their properties out for more than 90 days, a regulation the website announced in December last year, but a recent report by the Institute of PublicPolicy…
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Latest property news
London borough cracks down on short-term lets via Airbnb
Renting out a property via Airbnb has become a useful source of income for tens of thousands of landlords in London, and several agents including Portico have branched out to service this new short term lets management market. But one London borough is striking back after experiencing a deluge of Airbnb listings by its leaseholders and tenants. Southwark has revealed that it saw a 139% increase in the number of homes rented via Airbnb since the Deregulation Act 2015 loosened the rules for short-term lets of up to 90 days. Before the new regulations were introduced, leaseholders in London had to seek planning permission before being able to rent their properties out via home ‘sharing’ websites such as Airbnb. Now, Southwark says it is to clamp down on its leaseholders and tenants who advertise their properties on Airbnb. Beach of conditions Leaflets are being sent to both groups to remind them that “renting out their homes on any short-term holiday let website breaches the conditions of their lease and could result in legal action”, it says. People who have purcahsed properties from Southwark via Right to Buy are being reminded that their leaseholds stipulate that their homes should not be “used…
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Features
Beware Airbnb
Airbnb is a huge success, landlords and indeed, letting agents are climbing aboard but there are legal pitfalls, says specialist lawyer Adam Osieke.
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