If Cheltenham Borough Council Demolished 751 Homes...
It’s a shocking figure, but it’s not quite as it seems.
Cheltenham Borough Council hasn’t physically torn down a thousand homes. Instead, it has inadvertently allowed the equivalent of that number to vanish from the residential market. 751 is the current number of whole property listings on Airbnb. How? By turning a blind eye to the explosion of Airbnb and holiday lets.
Yes, you read that right. While the council hasn’t wielded a wrecking ball, it has, in effect, demolished the hopes of countless people looking for a place to call home.
By permitting thousands of properties to be converted into short-term rentals, the council has exacerbated the town’s housing crisis. These once-stable homes, often one or two-bedroom flats perfect for first-time buyers or young families, have been sucked out of the long-term rental market.
The impact is devastating. With fewer properties available, rents for traditional long-term rentals have skyrocketed. While an average rental property might cost around £1,300 per month, an Airbnb can command upwards of £5,000 – even if it’s only occupied for part of the month. This astronomical difference in income is a powerful incentive for landlords to prioritise short-term lets over long-term tenants.
The consequences extend far beyond the rental market. Key workers, such as nurses, teachers, and police officers, are being priced out of the town. They’re faced with the impossible choice of paying exorbitant rents or commuting long distances, adding to traffic congestion and environmental problems.
CBC has been asleep at the wheel. It’s time for ordinary council tax paying renters to make them wake up and smell the coffee. The short-term rental boom is having a visible impact on the town’s real economy and it’s hitting low-income key workers and the local businesses they spend with, hardest.
It’s time to start using existing powers, enforce fair tax for holiday lets, and build more genuinely affordable housing. It starts with measuring the size of the problem. How many and where are residential homes disappearing?
The economy of Cheltenham depends on it.
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