London landlords '£100 a week better off' renting property on Airbnb

Choice: Airbnb has more than 25,000 London homes listed on its website

Joanna Hodgson7 March 2016

London’s army of buy-to-let landlords could be more than £100 a week better off per property if they went down the internet phenomenon Airbnb route, new research has suggested.

The average weekly price for London properties listed on Airbnb is £450, while the average weekly rental price for tenants in the capital is £335, said residential specialist JLL.

Founded in 2008, San Francisco-based Airbnb has soared in popularity as homeowners welcome the way they can supplement their income by renting out rooms and properties for short stays to travellers.

London has the third-highest number of listings in the world — 25,357 homes at the end of 2015 — JLL said, behind Paris and New York.

The figure in the capital at the end of 2009 was just 171.

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Nick Whitten, associate director in JLL’s research team, said private rental landlords could earn more using the service.

But Whitten warned: “If a property is used for more than 90 days a year for short-term rentals, it could be considered for a change of use from a residential property to a hotel.

“This means Airbnb is more likely to be attractive for minimising void periods.”