Half of Cape Town Airbnb users need the app to afford their homes: report
Up to 52% of Cape Town Airbnb hosts use the online home sharing service to afford their homes, the company revealed on Thursday.
Speaking in an interview with News24, Airbnb Southern Africa regional market consultant Velma Corcoran said that out of the 43,000 Airbnb listings in South Africa, 17,000 are in Cape Town.
“We’ve met countless Airbnb hosts in Cape Town and seen how home sharing has helped them pay their bills and stay in their homes,” Corcoran said.
“They aren’t taking houses off the market; they are sharing their homes and the cities they love, and using the additional income to help pay the bills.”
According to Corcoran the typical Cape Town Airbnb host makes up to R43,400 a year from the platform by sharing space in their home for 32 nights.
This follws a May 2017 report which found that the app generated an estimated R2.4 billion in total economic activity across the country in 2016 – the sum of guest spending and host income.
While 26% of these guests spent their time at a Cape Town Airbnb, this number could decrease in the coming months, with the city’s mayco member for transport and urban development, Brett Heron, stating that letting out through Airbnb was not permitted without the city’s consent.
The by-laws do not affect BnBs and guesthouses because the accommodation is provided in a house or second house on a property – but holiday lets cannot be provided from blocks of flats.
“In terms of municipal planning by-laws, a block of flats cannot be used for holiday accommodation or hotel purposes,” said Herron.
“Any owner wishing to do short-term holiday letting from a block of flats, irrespective of the platform facilitating such letting – such as Airbnb or otherwise – must ensure the property is appropriately zoned, and must apply for consent from the city’s development management department.”
Read: A look inside Cape Town’s new R1 million “micro” apartments
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