Sydney Airbnbs among the priciest on the planet
Sydney has been named one of the world’s most expensive cities for Airbnb rentals – but that may be about to change.
In Bloomberg’s latest index of Airbnb rental costs, the emerald city is awarded the less-than-glittering title of tenth most expensive city globally in which to rent an Airbnb property.
Sydney sits alongside Singapore and Tel Aviv as one of the world’s most expensive cities to live in, meaning the cost of Airbnb reflects the average living cost.
It also boasts a booming tourism market and until recently, limited hotel room numbers which have pushed average daily hotel rates to around $215 per night.
This has allowed Airbnb hosts to charge more for their rentals and still be less expensive than commercial accommodation, creating an average Airbnb rate more expensive than that of New York, London and Barcelona.
However, latest figures from Horwath HTL Australia show new hotel room supply in Sydney has driven declines in occupancy, despite an increase in demand.
The city saw 17 new hotels either opened or extended in 2017 and the number of available rooms is slated to grow to 4,600 by 2022, increasing supply to 2.6 percent and likely causing an occupancy drop over the next three years – creating more competition for Airbnb.
A lack of equivalent accommodation and cost of living are not, though, the only drivers of Sydney’s high Airbnb rental costs.
A 2016 survey by bus ticket booking website Busbud showed the difference between Airbnb accommodation and comparable hotel rooms in Sydney was smaller than for many of the world’s major cities.
Busbud compared 222,000 Airbnb listings to hotel rooms listed on another bookings website in 22 cities worldwide.
It found opting for Airbnb over hotels in London or Paris could save hundreds of dollars, while in Berlin, New York and Vienna, hotel rooms were almost double the cost of Airbnb rentals.
In Sydney, the difference between hotels and Airbnb was only around 30 per cent.
Individuals are responsible for setting their own rates on the platform and the Bloomberg index reflects an average only.
As lonelyplanet.com states: ” It’s worth noting that these are just average costs and budget-friendly options can be found everywhere, they just require a bit of work.”
The new list of the world’s top 20 most expensive cities for Airbnb is:
1 – Miami, Florida, USA ($205)
2 – Boston, Massachusetts, USA ($195)
3 – Reykjavik, Iceland ($194)
4 – Tel Aviv, Israel ($188)
5 – Dubai, UAE ($185)
6 – Los Angeles, California, USA ($180)
7 – Amsterdam, Netherlands ($178)
8 – San Francisco, California, USA ($178)
9 – Jerusalem, Israel ($175)
10 – Sydney, Australia ($175)
11 – Riyadh, Saudi Arabia ($171)
12 – Edinburgh, Scotland ($166)
13 – New York City, USA ($159)
14 – Seattle, Washington, USA ($156)
15 – Kuwait City, Kuwait ($155)
16 – London, UK ($154) tied with Singapore ($154)
17 – Washington, DC, USA ($153)
18 – Dublin, Ireland ($152)
19 – Barcelona, Spain ($151)
The Bloomberg figures do differ from Airbnb’s internal figures in some instances. In Tel Aviv, for example, the average rate listed by Airnbnb is $87 per night, lower than the $188 daily rate that Bloomberg found.
That’s because Airbnb only factors in rentals that are already booked, while Bloomberg looks at all advertised rates on site.
AccomNews is not affiliated with any government agency, body or political party. We are an independently owned, family-operated magazine.
