Marvin Rees has compared Bristol's rental market to the "Wild West" as he calls for "intervention". The Mayor of Bristol appeared on BBC Radio 4 this morning (June 19) following the news that scores of empty homes in Bristol have been "lost" to Airbnb.
Landlords are listing 1,500 rental properties in the city as holiday lets on the site, rather than letting them to local residents desperate for a roof over their head. According to statistics collected by "Inside Airbnb", there is a total of 2,329 Airbnb properties currently being advertised on Airbnb in the City of Bristol - a total of 1,494 of these are "entire homes or apartments", as opposed to the 835 listings that are a single room or part of someone's home.
One house hunter told Radio 4 this morning that they had been looking for somewhere to live since March, and "you have to phone within 20-30 minutes of the property going online, otherwise it's gone". During an appearance on the radio station morning, Marvin called for an "intervention" in Bristol's housing market.
