What effect will Covid-19 have on the holiday let market?
Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic the holiday let / Airbnb market was booming, with a huge variety and styles of accommodation to choose from whilst on vacation, from cities to small villages and everywhere in between.
Neighbours were converting their properties or building outhouses to capitalise on the very lucrative boom.
Then, the once never heard of, and now all we talk about, Covid-19 pandemic came along.
We are restricted to the confines of our own 4 walls with holidays being something we can now only dream about.
The holiday let / Airbnb market is seeing a shift to cancellations rather than bookings, leaving the owner with an empty property and lack of income.
It’s no secret that holiday let / Airbnb properties have a negative effect on the rental market, with properties which were once available in the private rented sector being rented as holiday homes, often to the detriment of locals being unable to live in their own local area and to the dismay of neighbours having a constant change of occupants next door.
We have seen an upturn in enquiries from holiday let owners looking for a more stable and long-term way to take an income from their investment.
Our Residential Lettings Manager, Sarah-Anne Gow, comments “The change of a property from a holiday let to the private rented sector would be a great benefit to prospective tenants, giving them a much wider property stock to choose from and could provide housing to those who need or choose to rent their home in locations which were once excluded to them.”
It seems likely that one of the many consequences from the Covid-19 crisis will be a reduced holiday let property market and increased choice for tenants in the private rented sector.
If you have a holiday let / Airbnb property and you wish to consider moving in to the private rented sector please get in touch with Sarah-Anne to discuss further.
