The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, is calling on the government to help protect London’s housing supply from being decimated by short-term lets.
The rapid growth in short-term lets in London in recent years — fuelled by online platforms such as Airbnb — is one element fuelling London’s housing crisis.
In July 2023 there were 81,792 listings in London on AirBnB alone.
Of these, 50,401 are for entire properties, meaning at least one in every seventy-four homes in the capital is available for short-term let.
London is one of the tourism capitals of the world and short-term lets are a key part of the visitor ecosystem, but due to a lack of sufficient regulation or resources for boroughs to monitor the situation, it is unclear how many may be being let against the rules for more than 90 days a year.
Therefore, the Mayor is calling on the government to work with him and London boroughs to implement a licensing system for short-term lets.
This would allow local authorities to limit the numbers of licenses issued in their area and avoid losing entire streets or blocks to tourism.
The Mayor’s call to action comes as part of his response to two government consultations on the future of short-term lets.
The Mayor commented: “I am doing all I can to tackle the housing crisis in London, building a record number of the genuinely affordable, high-quality homes that Londoners deserve.
“But these efforts will continue to be hampered by the lack of regulation in the short-term letting market.
“[They] play an important role in [the capital’s] tourism industry, but that mustn't come at the expense of Londoners who need a place to live.
“We need transparency about how many properties are being rented out for longer than the rules permit, and accountability to local authorities and residents.
“This is why I’m calling for a licencing system to bring some order to this rapidly growing sector and prevent us losing yet more homes for Londoners.”
