Airbnb properties in London rise to more than 25,000

The number of properties listed on Airbnb in London has increased by 150-fold to more than 25,000 over the past five years, according to new research from real estate company JLL.

At the end of 2015, a total of 25,357 homes in the capital were listed on the online rental site, compared to just 171 in 2009. London now has the third highest number of listings in the world on Airbnb, behind Paris and New York which each have 35,424 and 30,480 properties respectively.

Jll's research found that 75% of people who have listed their homes on the site have done so around the time of a major event in their city, such as the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

The most common reason for listing properties on Airbnb was to raise extra income. The second most popular reason was to fill a vacant home between tenancies, suggesting an increase in the use of the online site by private rental landlords.

Nick Whitten, associate director in the residential research team at JLL, said that the research highlighted "a significant and dramatic social change" over just five years.

Earlier this week Chris Nassetta, president and chief executive of Hilton Worldwide, dismissed Airbnb as a threat to hotels because it is in the lodging and not the hospitality business. He made his remarks during a panel of global hotel chief executives at the International Hotel Investment Forum in Berlin.

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