A newspaper is reporting that almost 1,500 homes which could be used for long-term mainstream rentals have been ‘lost’ to short lets in one city alone.

The Bristol Post, citing data from a group called Inside Airbnb, suggests some experts in the city anticipate more buy to let landlords will switch to short lets to avoid further restrictions when the Rental Reform Bill becomes law.

Inside Airbnb is reported to show that 2,329 properties are currently listed on Airbnb in Bristol, although it is not clear whether this filters out ‘rooms only’ or multiple listings for the same property, where the owner has resubmitted the listing in a different way.

Inside Airbnb lists the number of short lets in London as hitting 46,000 and in Greater Manchester as 3,000. 

Meanwhile Paul Smith – a local housing association chief in Bristol, and a former council housing committee chairperson – says in his personal blog that he doubts there are the economic benefits to the city that short let advocates claim. 

He writes: “If those homes were occupied for the whole year by a household rather than just in the tourist season the impact on local shops and other facilities would be greater. It would have a negative impact on the domestic cleaning sector but could increase the viability of hotels and B&Bs. 

“… One of the concerns of the Government (and the rest of us) is that as rules on private renting increase, instead of selling properties to other landlords or to potential owners they are flipped to short term lets, further collapsing the number of homes available.

“We should also remember what the purpose of planning classes is. It is to determine that the land use follows the needs of a local area. Homes are (mainly) in Planning Use class C3 and the housing targets in local plans are based upon an assessment of local housing need. Hotels, guest houses etc are in Planning Use C1. If someone wants to convert a house into a hotel, they will need to submit a change of use planning application. 

“Currently changing a home into a short-term letting does not require planning permission. It would be possible for a whole block of flats or even a whole community to be converted to short term use without any intervention from the local authority (London has slightly different rules to the rest of England). This appears to be a complete perversion of the planning system and a way of covertly sabotaging housing provision and whole communities.”

However, Smith begins his blog with an admission – that a few days after writing it, he was scheduled to stay in an Airbnb himself.