Airbnbs - Not as many as most think and way down on the pre-Covid count
Airbnbs
Not as many as most think and way down on the pre-Covid count
The consensus is that when we do go on a holiday, we are increasing staying in an Airbnb.
Also, many think that Airbnb’s are talking over our inner-city areas, regional towns and coastal enclaves.
Yet the numbers show that this isn’t necessary true.
Worldwide just one in seven of us (14%) are projected to stay in Airbnb when it comes to accommodation spending by 2027. And if this comes true then this proportion will have changed little over the past decade.
Hotels, and the like, will continue to dominate our tourist abodes.
Airbnb's presence varies significantly across cities worldwide, often reflecting local tourism demand, housing markets, and regulatory environments.
According to Airbnb there are around eight (8) million listings across the globe.
Airbnb’s are spread across 100,000 cities in 220 countries.
Global Cities with high Airbnb density include:
· Venice, Italy: Approximately 25 listings per 1,000 inhabitants
· Reykjavík, Iceland: Around 25 listings per 1,000 inhabitants
· Paris, France: Approximately 20 listings per 1,000 inhabitants
· Lisbon, Portugal: Approximately 15 listings per 1,000 inhabitants
· Barcelona, Spain: Approximately 12 listings per 1,000 inhabitants
Australia’s situation
There are around 169,000 Airbnb’s listed across Australia. This is up from the 142,000 count during 2020, at the height of the pandemic. So, listings are up 19% since then, increasing by 5,500 new homes per year between 2020 and early 2025.
Yet there were some 220,000 Airbnb listings in 2019. So, whilst numbers are slowly rising, the total current count is 51,000 or 23% less than the pre-Covid number.
And the 169,000 count equates to 6.3 listings per 1,000 inhabitants or about 1.6% of the nation’s private housing stock.
A breakdown by a selection of Australian urban areas follows:
· Sydney has 18,000 Airbnb listings, of which 80% are whole homes. This equates to around 3.2 Airbnb listings per 1,000 residents or 0.9% of Sydney’s private homes.
· Melbourne has 26,000 Airbnb listings. This equates to around Airbnb 5.1 listings per 1,000 residents or 1.2% of the city’s private homes. Some 74% are the whole home.
· Brisbane (and in this case the Brisbane City Council area) has just 5,400 Airbnb listings, of which 74% are whole homes. This equates to around 4.1 Airbnb listings per 1,000 residents or 1.0% of BCC’s private homes.
I do wonder if there will be enough beds when it comes to accommodating the 2032 Olympics? I reckon that Brisbane, and even SEQld, isn’t big enough (and hence doesn’t hold all the things needed) to host such an event. Barcelona – with 1.63 million residents - is a case in point.
For mine it’s a fool’s errand to try and build the stuff you need to host the Olympics. Brisbane should never have pitched and, moreover, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) should have said “sorry you are too small, don’t even bother, go away”. Oh, if only!
I reckon the cut off should be a minimum of five million residents for a city or urban region to make the Olympic cut.
Bring on the tough love IOC!
· Tasmania has 6,500 Airbnb listings, of which 88% are whole homes. This equates to around 11.3 Airbnb listings per 1,000 residents or 2.5% of Apple Isle’s private homes. Remember Tassie is almost the size of Ireland being 68,000km2 versus 70,000km2. There are 27,000 Airbnbs listing across Emerald Isle. Tassie is bigger in terms of area than many mainlanders think.
And if the new Mac Point Stadium (MPS) is built in Hobart – and a big “if” if you ask me – where will visitors stay? Because without interstate attendees the stadium will never be full.
MPS is expected to hold some 23,000 sporting fans or 39,000 concert goers. If all attendees are local, then a full AFL event will need 7% of Tassie’s likely adult attendees (being between 15 and 70 years) and 12% for a concert. These sort of market penetrations have never happened anywhere in the world.
And these volumes don’t even factor in the cost. It costs about $200 (including food, drinks and parking) to take a family of four to an AFL game in Melbourne these days.
Many Tasmanian households are already on their knees and the state is in deep financial shite. So the MPS will cost a bomb - directly and in interest too - and moreover many residents will not be able to afford attendance.
And for what it is worth Cold Chisel (which was a great concert by the way) struggled to fill the 5,500 seats in Hobart late last year, against every other Aussie and Kiwi venue that easily sold out. Some 225,000 chisel seats were sold across the country on their recent The Big 50 Tour.
At best only 14,000 people per day (on average) attended the Fifth Ashes Test at Bellerive in 2021. And it was the first Ashes Test held across Bass Strait. Yes, the event was Covid impacted and that is why so many locals attended, as a lot of the attendees had little else to do.
And AC/DC drew just 15,300 concert goers in Hobart in 2001. Elton John only got 5,400 heads to turn up in Hobart in 2017 and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers more recently (2019) only scored 7,400 Tassie heads and - ha - that’s not a double count.
So, pigs will fly if the state can pull 39,000 locals to a concert, regardless of who plays.
And I do feel lighter getting that off my chest!
· And finally the Sunshine Coast (including Noosa) has 7,100 Airbnbs. That’s a biggish 16.7 listings per 1,000 local heads or a high 4.6 % of the dwelling count. Some 92% of these listings are whole homes.
To check out what is going on in your town or where you are planning to visit, go here.
And on average we (well those of us using an Airbnb in the Asian Pacific) stay in an Airbnb for around three nights - revisit my chart at the start - making them idea for a short Easter break.
