Cape Town's Airbnb boom: 19k homes removed from local market, worsening housing crisis

Clarence Ford interviews Barbara Friedman about this and other trending news on the web.

Listen below.

According to Inside Airbnb, Cape Town boasts 23 564 Airbnb-listed properties, surpassing popular destinations like Barcelona (18 086) and Bangkok (20 823).

The breakdown is as follows:

• 19 280 (81.8%): Entire homes/apartments
• 4062 (17.2%): Private rooms
• 79 (0.3%): Shared rooms
• 143 (0.6%): Hotel rooms

While this influx of properties may benefit tourism, concerns have been raised that it effectively removes at least 19 280 homes from the local housing market.

This shift has distorted rental prices and increased the number of properties that remain vacant for extended periods each year, adding to the housing crisis.

RELATED: Demise of Airbnb? Apartment buildings increasingly ban short-term rentals

"Obviously this raises questions about on the one hand people are making money out of Airbnbs, but what about the kind of pressure it puts onto residents of the city to have affordable rentals?"

- Barbara Friedman

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