London sees a spike in holiday lets, impacting housing. High rents and limited homes trouble residents.
One in 32 homes in London are now short-term lets, and some say landlords profit from this situation. Regular Londoners face high rents and homelessness, leading to concerns about fairness.
They think the city center should be for residents, not just tourists or rich people. They want the government to help renters first, prioritizing their needs within the community.
Someone suggested councils buy rental properties and then convert them to social housing. Short-term lets might be illegal rentals too, as limits exist on how many days they can rent, but it’s apparently hard to enforce those rules.
Officials need to decide how to handle this situation, recognizing that short-term rentals fill a need for tourism. Yet they might impact the housing shortage. In London, rentals must be less than 90 nights per year, and more than that requires permission.
Over half of London’s short-term rentals exceed 90 days, suggesting law breaking is common. Westminster has 16,000 rentals, and issues are significant there, as many are entire homes listed past the limit.
Westminster has many listings, around forty percent, and Kensington and Chelsea have 35%. Camden has a figure around 25%.
Westminster rentals bring about £450 million per year, which is eighteen percent of their rental income. Leaders say rentals hurt secure and affordable housing options. They push rent prices way up, too.
Westminster councils want stronger rules and resources. They want licensing to address the problem, and it is said that London tourism must balance with housing, so Londoners can afford a home here.
Hosts owning 21+ properties control 24% of rentals. London housing is twelve times the average salary cost, which is worse than the national average of eight times.
Experts see a growing imbalance in London’s market. Short-term rentals are a symptom of a housing crisis. They believe tax laws disincentivize long term rentals, which pushes landlords to short-term lets, they claim.
They want mortgage interest relief and stamp duty reform. Without it, more landlords may switch to short-term lets. This makes long-term homes less available, driving up rents. London renters spend more on rent than the national rate does, and many London families wait for housing, some are actually homeless.
This forces local governments to fund temporary housing. Approximately 3.79 million homes existed in London in 2023. That’s London’s housing summed up.