Browsing by Subject "vuokrahinnat"

Short-term rental platforms have become widely popular in recent years, but their growth has left cities to face a variety of problems. Studies have shown, for example, that short-term rentals have led to an increase in long-term rental prices. When more and more apartments are used as short-term rentals, the supply of long-term rentals decreases. This causes more pressure on the long-term rental market and leads to increased prices. In this study I examine the possible impacts of Airbnb, the biggest and most popular short-term rental platform, on the rental market of Helsinki. First, I analyse how many apartments have been removed from the long-term rental market to the Airbnb market, and second, how likely it is that the number of Airbnb rentals rises in the future. Presumably, renting through Airbnb becomes more popular when the potential income from Airbnb rentals is larger than from long-term rentals. In Neil Smith’s terms, this difference between actual and potential rental income constitutes a rent gap. Therefore, I also analyse whether renting short-term in Helsinki is more profitable than renting long-term. In addition, I discuss the current city and tourism policies of the city of Helsinki in the light of the results of the above research questions and give recommendations on issues to be taken into account in the future. This study uses AirDNA’s data of Airbnb rentals in Helsinki and long-term rental price data from KTI Property Information Ltd, and it focuses on data from year 2019. Data analysis is conducted using statistical and geospatial methods. The results of this study show that in 2019 there were a significant number of professional Airbnb rentals in Helsinki, 863 in total. However, their number varied substantially between the districts of Helsinki. There was a large amount of professional Airbnb rentals especially in the city centre and Kallio area. On the scale of the whole of Helsinki, professional Airbnb rentals comprise approximately 0,5 % of all rental apartments whereas in some districts in the city centre the percentage was considerably higher, in the Kamppi district as much as 3,9 %. Based on the results, the number of Airbnb rentals will likely grow in the future because Airbnb rental income was, on average, greater than long-term rental income in each of the study areas. In most areas, the rent gap was substantial. However, the size of the rent gap varied significantly, between 50 and 1350 euros, based on the location and amount of rooms of the apartment. Some policy recommendations can be made based on the results of this study. When designing future policies, it is important to acknowledge that a sizeable part of the Airbnb rentals in Helsinki is professional and that the number of professional rentals will probably continue to increase. Since the number of professional rentals is still quite small on the city level, the impacts of short-term rentals in Helsinki are presumably not yet significant. Nevertheless, in the future problems can arise especially in the city centre and Kallio area, as these areas have a lot of professional Airbnb rentals. Since only professional Airbnb rentals are disadvantageous for the long-term rental market, assigning certain restrictions would be justifiable in order to prevent future problems and to promote sustainable tourism. Restricting Airbnb activity could be done by enforcing current regulations more rigorously or setting a yearly renting limit like many other European cities have done. This would help to inhibit activity that is against the current legislation and to support the real sharing economy.