‘Airbnb-Style’ Landlords Opting to Reinvest Earnings in Property Refurbishments

New data shows that ‘Airbnb-style’ landlords are increasingly investing in home improvement projects, providing support for the construction industry.

According to figures from the Federation of Master Builders (FMB), there has been a reduction in growth for the delivery of new housing, with a sharp decrease from 17% across the last three years, to 2% this year.

The FMB has noted that 40% of landlords who use short-term holiday rental sites have chosen to reinvest part of their income in property refurbishments.

Brian Berry, chief executive of the FMB, has said: “This is good news for the UK’s builders and helps explain why small construction firms are reporting strong growth in the domestic refurbishment despite Brexit jitters. The explosion of the sharing economy is helping home owners fund their refurbishment projects.”

Overall, this study shows that 43% of landlords using short-term holiday rental sites spend their money on holidays, and 40% of them spend their money on property refurbishments. 25% choose to put the money towards a new car, 23% prefer to spend it on entertainment, such as ticketed events, and 23% save their money. 17% responded that they use their earnings to make ends meet, and 10% said that they spend it on new clothes.

Berry also commented: “Home improvement work is the second most popular way in which ‘Airbnb-style’ landlords are choosing to spend their extra cash.

“Our same research shows that currently 3% of British homeowners are renting their own homes out on ‘Airbnb-style’ websites. In the UK, this equates to around 800,000 homes.

“What’s more, 16% of home owners are interested in renting their homes out in this way in the future – this would equate to more than three and a half million additional properties.

“Airbnb says that globally, it gains 14,000 new landlords each month on its own platform alone. If this trend continues, and if homeowners remain committed to investing the extra cash in repairing and maintaining their properties, rather than blowing the money on cars and clothes, it will stand the construction industry in good stead in the future.”