The Labour Mayor of Bristol has spoken out about the threat to the mainstream rental sector posed by the proliferation of Airbnb and either short let properties.

Marvin Rees, cited on the Bristol Live news website, says he has no powers to control the spread of short lets, but he believes legal changes to curb their proliferation have failed to keep up with the realities of the local housing market in the city.

Bristol Live quotes research suggesting that eight of the city’s top 10 hosts promoted by Airbnb listed themselves as “accommodation providers.”

It adds: “Far from being a website for people to let out a spare room to a tourist, almost two thirds of the properties listed in Bristol on Airbnb are ‘entire property lets’ – and more than a third of those … are listed by someone with more than one property.”

Rees does not have the power of his London counterpart, Mayor Sadiq Khan, who has instituted a 90-night maximum annual lettings quota for each Airbnb and short let in the capital – which in theory makes this rental option less profitable, and therefore less attractive to landlords considering a switch from mainstream letting.

Rees says: “Those powers aren’t available to me but I’d have to look at the numbers of what’s going on on Airbnb – but local authority leaders across the country are concerned when they begin getting consumed by Airbnbs.

“This is another example, like rent controls, where the nature of the housing market begins to change and the legislation has not kept pace with the changing nature of the housing market. Local authorities are then left under-powered in the face of other forces that are impacting on people’s ability to live in a place.”