Big changes coming for Airbnb and other rentals in South Africa
Airbnb has urged the South African government to establish a national host registration system faster for better oversight of local hosting activities and better data when approaching coming regulatory measures.
The call follows new research from Airbnb, which analysed the impact of short-term rentals on Cape Town’s economy and housing market.
Cape Town’s Airbnb sector is soaring, sporting more listings than the cities of Sydney and San Francisco combined.
Data from Inside Airbnb, a collaborative data effort that reports on the expansion of Airbnb globally, shows that there are 23,564 active listings in the Mother City.
This has been met with mixed views, with debates over its impact on housing affordability, tourism benefits and incomes.
However, the company claims that the new research “shows little to no correlation between Airbnbs and rising rents.”
What has grabbed headlines of late have been that some Cape Town residents are growing increasingly impatient with the lack of government regulations on Airbnb, as they say that they are being iced out of the city by rising short-term rental units.
In response to public pushback, Barcelona, for example, plans to ban short-term rentals like Airbnb by 2028, citing rising living costs and a housing crisis.
Barcelona mayor Jaume Collboni aims to convert 10,000 such rentals back into long-term housing.
However, Airbnb refuted this and said that according to its own study, dedicated listings in Cape Town account for only 0.9% of the city’s 818,000 housing units, representing less than 1 in 100.
They also comprise less than 1.5% of the additional units needed to meet rising housing demand, and Airbnb listings in the Mother City have remained ‘relatively unchanged’ between January 2020 and 2024.
Additionally, Airbnb said that in 2023, approximately 2 million people stayed in Airbnb listings across South Africa – with 700,000 guests arriving in Cape Town, contributing an estimated R14.4 billion to GDP and supporting 42,000 jobs.
This resulted in approximately R7 billion in labour income, including both proprietor income and employee compensation, it said.
In total, hosts in Cape Town earned nearly R2.5 billion in 2023, and a typical listing is rented for 38 nights a year, with a typical host earning R74,000 in the year.
Velma Corcoran, Regional Lead for the Middle East and Africa, said that “hosting on Airbnb provides much-needed income to families in South Africa and supports thousands of jobs across the wider economy.”
For many, hosting is an economic lifeline, according to a survey of hosts in Cape Town:
- 49% say the extra income helps them afford their homes;
- 50% say the extra income helps them afford the rising cost of living;
- 47% say the current economic climate is driving them to host more.
“Eliminating the revenue earned through Airbnb would be a major economic blow to these hosts, in some cases undermining their ability to afford to live in the area,” said the company.
Following the Airbnb-commissioned study, the group wrote to the South African government urging the acceleration of a national registration system for the country.
Airbnb signed a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Tourism in 2023 over this register.
“The primary goal of this collaboration is to develop a relationship between the Ministry, its department and entity, and Airbnb to harness and drive tourism domestically and internationally,” said Minister Patricia de Lille after the signing.
Short-term rentals play an increasing role in South Africa’s tourism economy, but “insufficient information is available about the unregulated Short Term Rental subsector, and this hampers informed policy decision making.
“Access to the Airbnb data can only assist in informing better decisions,” added the Minister.
Airbnb said that the recent letter recommends expediting a national host registration system to boost transparency on hosting activity and help ensure that Cape Town and other cities are equipped to introduce additional targeted rules based on clear evidence – if needed.
“Data from a register of hosts can then inform targeted and proportionate steps to regulate activity where there is a clear need,” said Corcoran.
The Department of Tourism has also started processes to develop regulations for the short-term rental industry.
The Tourism White Paper, now out for public comment, proposes implementing a differentiated regulatory system and a framework for improved reporting on short-term rentals, like that of Airbnb.
Among the proposals under consideration is to give the Minister of Tourism the power to determine certain thresholds for Airbnb locations in South Africa, including limits on how many nights a customer can book at one location.
“Once we have incorporated all the comments, I will take the matter to cabinet for consideration,” De Lille recently told the Sunday Times.
Airbnb said that “in South Africa, there are myriad factors contributing towards housing supply and affordability challenges, which include the spatial legacy of apartheid, the rate of housing construction, and semigration, to name a few.”
“While evidence suggests dedicated rentals on Airbnb represent a small share of housing units in Cape Town, we believe that governments should have the tools and data to understand the impact of short-term rentals in their communities.
“[Airbnb] actually believes that regulation—if it’s simple, if it’s appropriate, and if it’s proportionate—can be a really good thing,” Corcoran previously told MyBroadband.
However, she warned against hastily forming regulations without comprehending the specific issues at hand, noting that there is no current evidence of South African cities facing issues like housing crises or over-tourism.
Key recommendations from Airbnb include implementing a free national host registration system for transparency, tailoring regulations to rental intensity, and empowering local authorities to curb speculation threatening long-term housing.
Airbnb said that well-informed regulation would help to provide policy certainty for hosts and guests, and create a level playing field for all operators.
The full report is available here.
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