London Airbnb host 'could receive £266,000 income in a year'

There are now over 38,000 active listings of London properties on Airbnb according to a monitoring service that analyses the platform’s content - and it calculates that one of those hosts could have achieved an annual income in excess of £266,000.

Airdna, a research firm specializing in Airbnb data across the world, says there were 38,203 listings in February.

Of these 564 were for shared rooms with 18,133 for private rooms in shared properties.

Some 1,751 were for studios, 7,636 were one bedroom properties and 6,831 two bedroom homes.

Three bedroom homes totalled 2,026 with 1,137 units that had four or more bedrooms. 

Occupancy rate - calculated as the number of days that a property had a reservation divided by the total number of days it was available for rent in the month - was 44 per cent. 

Some 23 per cent were given five-star ratings with six per cent on four-and-a-half stars; another six per cent were given four-star ratings with one per cent on three-and-a-half stars and another one per cent on one star. 

In terms of amenities, 95 per cent had wi-fi and 83 per cent had a washer/dryer, but only 11 per cent had free parking.

But the most startling analysis comes from Airdna’s calculation of the top earners in each property-type category; this is not what every property could earn, only those which appeared to have the most expensive rate.

This was calculated on each entry’s description, review, occupancy rate and daily rate; each property was then given an ‘estimated annual revenue’ - although there is no way of checking whether such an income was made.

Airdna says the top-earning shared room described itself as being near the Eurostar terminal and had an EAR (estimated annual revenue) of £30,887; a private room had the potential of £100,606; and a studio could have annual revenue estimated at £50,102.

One bedroom homes could attract £83,395; the highest-valued two bedroom unit had an EAR of £113,833; and for a three bedroom the figure was £184,053.

But the biggest sum was for the top-earning four+ bedroom unit, which was in Shoreditch, which had an EAR of £266,726; this was a multiple-unit property which could be let out as nine apartments. 

The next highest-earning property in that category was a five bedroom house in Kensington with an EAR of £160,404.

Such potential earnings assume the owner ignores the 90-night maximum that London short lets are allowed per property per year, without winning planning consent for change of use.