The San Francisco-based platform is not a holiday company but an extraction industry, critics claim, mining the beauty of UK honeypots
When I load the Airbnb home page to check on rentals in North Cornwall, it tells me that I can earn up to AUD $2950 a month hosting right where I live. Given soaring energy bills and rampant inflation, it’s tempting. I live in a farmhouse near Pendle Hill, Lancashire. It’s remote and wind-lashed, but that might appeal to a city-dweller after a bit of gritty northern weather.
But Airbnb tells me there are 344 houses nearby already signed up. Maybe not a winter option, then.
In Braunton, North Devon, the site claims “more than 1,000” holiday lets. It sounds like an awful lot for a village with around 7,000 residents. But the rate in other seaside settlements is even higher. Recent researched by campaign group Inside Airbnb revealed that, across the country, one in 67 coastal dwellings are listed on the lettings site – up from one in 105 in 2019.
In Newquay (Cornwall) and Whitby (North Yorkshire) one in six homes are on Airbnb; in St Ives (Cornwall) it’s one in five; in Woolacombe and Croyde (both also in North Devon) as well as St Andrews (Scotland), it’s one in four.
Emma Dee Hookway, 43, was living in Braunton in summer 2021, when her landlady asked her to leave so that her own daughter could move in.
“I’d lived in North Devon all my life,” she says. “I always rented because it was too expensive for me to buy as a single parent.
“My son, aged six at the time, is autistic. He could see I was worried so on the walk to school I explained to him that lots of people want to visit or move here because it’s beautiful and people want a better quality of life after Covid.
“I dropped him off at school and as I was going home, I started crying. It hit me that I couldn’t find anywhere to live in the place that I called home. I posted a comment on Facebook and within an hour I had about 100 comments. That soon grew to 300 so I set up a group. It went viral.”
She founded the UK Housing Crisis Group, which gives a voice to residents of rural communities and holiday destinations negatively affected by the demand for holiday property and second homes.
One consequence of out-of-control holiday lets is the disappearance of basic services – such as garages, post offices and grocers – because staff are unavailable, out-of-season demand is negligible and holidaymakers bring food or have it delivered.
“It’s having a massive impact on doctors, dentists and schools,” says Hookway. “There are so many holiday lets here in North Devon that there aren’t enough children to meet the quotas for some of our small village schools.”
The local economy has been transformed, she says. “The few rentals that become available have shot up in price. I was paying AUD$1590 a month for the house, but now you’d be paying around AUD$2472. When you take into account that the living wage – which is what a lot of people in North Devon earn – works out at about AUD $30,550 per year, it makes living here impossible for many people.
“My eldest son is 22 and if he comes home the only way he can rent something is to live on a boat.”
In the end Hookway managed to find a home. She explains: “I got lucky. Everybody knows me, so I was offered a flat to rent above a private members’ club. At first, I felt like a failure because I’m in my 40s and I’d moved from a four-bed house with a garden to living in a flat that’s not been decorated since the 1970s. But, actually, I now consider myself very fortunate to have a home in the area, when so many don’t”.
Similar stories can be found across Britain’s tourism hotspots. From the Cotswolds to the Scottish Highlands, Cornwall to North Yorkshire, residents of villages and small towns are being forced to leave and local services are disappearing.
A few years ago, Laugharne, in south-west Wales, wasn’t very fashionable. I know, because I lived there from 2012-2015. Apart from a few Dylan Thomas pilgrims and coach trips, there were few visitors and those who stayed used local B&Bs and pubs.
Today, 108 of the 544 households are either holiday lets, second homes or empty. There’s no GP service and the bus to the nearest surgery is infrequent and problematic for older residents. School admissions have fallen and problems with fly tipping have increased as refuse collection doesn’t coincide with holiday let changeover days.
“The impact of holiday lets and second houses – I refuse to call them homes – on local housing is the top issue for residents right now,” says Roxanne Treacy, the township’s mayor.
“Locals have been forced to move out, because of the lack of long-term rentals and massive increase in house prices. Those who are in a position to buy can’t compete with cash buyers on estate agents’ lists, with smaller properties being snapped up particularly quickly.
“Many of what were traditionally starter homes have been turned into holiday lets and long-term lets are being converted into holiday lets because they pay more. Those wealthy enough to buy second, third or fourth properties are stopping locals from buying or renting their first home in their own communities.
“People are sick of some who seem to see Laugharne as their own private Monopoly game, buying up several houses to run as holiday lets or even leave empty. This is a community, not just part of someone’s portfolio.”
What’s the answer? The Welsh Senedd has announced plans to introduce a licensing system for holiday lets and allow local councils to impose quotas. In Laugharne, one local developer has specified in the title deeds that properties cannot be used as holiday lets.
“We should tax people more for having second homes and running holiday lets,” says Hookway. “It’s extraordinary that during the pandemic Airbnb owners could claim £10,000 bursaries for loss of earnings.”
Airbnb lets and second homes are part of the same problem. But the former is arguably worse, as it’s effectively an extraction industry, converting local beauty into an investment for distant shareholders, while destroying that locale – just like a mine or quarry.
There are nearly one million homes in England with no full-time residents – 653,000 vacant homes, 253,000 second homes, plus 70,000 properties recently flipped to business rates as commercial holiday lets to avoid local council tax.
No one knows exactly how many properties fall inside the unregulated “whole-home” Airbnb market, but pressure group Action on Empty Homes says “at least 150,000 homes have been sucked out of residential use with the true total believed to be far higher.”
“We desperately need homes to meet local housing needs,” says Will McMahon, Director of Action on Empty Homes.
“So-called second homes and Airbnbs aren’t home to anyone. Local communities need new powers to keep homes in residential use and limit numbers of second homes and Airbnbs as in Scotland and Wales. Thus far the English Government has done nothing but consult on a licensing scheme and leaves councils and communities alike powerless to act.”
Airbnb’s revenue was AUD $9.25 billion in 2021, despite the pandemic. The company recently announced a £1.25 million donation to English Heritage. It was contacted for comment, but none was forthcoming.
