In Spain, the presence of Airbnb is increasingly increasing, especially in tourist areas. This has obvious consequences, such as increasing property prices. And to that is added one more, sAccording to a recent study: the increase in crime.
According to the most detailed study of its kind, the increase in the number of houses and apartments offered as short-term rentals on Airbnb is associated with higher rates of crime, such as robberies and street robberiesall over London.
The analysis has revealed an association between the number of properties offered as Airbnb rentals and thefts and violent crime reported by police in thousands of London neighborhoods between 2015 and 2018.
In fact, the study by the University of Cambridge and the University of Pennsylvania suggests that a 10% increase in active Airbnb rentals in the city would correspond to 1,000 additional robberies per year throughout London.
Urban sociologists say that the rapid rate at which crime is increasing along with new rentals suggests that the link is related more to opportunities for crime than to loss of cohesion within communities, although both are likely contributing factors.
“We have looked for the most plausible alternative explanations, from changes in police patrols to fashionable tourist spots and even football matches – explains Charles Lanfear of the Cambridge Institute of Criminology, co-author of the study -. Nothing changed the central finding that Airbnb rentals are linked to higher crime rates in London neighborhoods. While Airbnb offers benefits to tourists and hosts in terms of ease and financial reward, There may be social consequences to converting large swaths of city neighborhoods into loosely regulated hotels.”.
However, concerns that Airbnb is contributing to unaffordable housing costs have sparked a backlash among residents in cities such as Barcelona, and demand greater regulationeithern. London is one of the most popular Airbnb markets in the world. An estimated 4.5 million guests stayed at an Airbnb in the British capital during the period covered by the study.
Lanfear and his co-author from the University of Pennsylvania, Professor David Kirk, used large amounts of data from AirDNA: a site that will provide figures, trends and approximate geolocations for the short-term rental market.
The authors mapped AirDNA data from 13 calendar quarters (January 2015 to March 2018). These are designated areas of a few streets containing around two thousand residents, used primarily for UK census purposes.
Crime statistics from the UK Home Office and the Greater London Authority for six categories (robbery, theft, theft, anti-social behaviour, any type of violence and bodily harm) were overlaid on the AirDNA figures. The authors analyzed all forms of Airbnb rentals, but found that the link between Airbnb assets and crime se mainly attributed to entire rental propertiesinstead of free or shared rooms.
The association between active Airbnb rentals and Crime was more significant in the case of robberies and theftsfollowed by theft and any type of violence. No link was found for antisocial behavior and bodily harm.
On average across London, one additional Airbnb property was associated with a 2% increase in theft rate within a long distance rental area. This association was 1% for robbery, 0.9% for robbery, and 0.5% for violence.
“While the potential criminogenic effect of each Airbnb rental is small, the cumulative effect of dozens in a neighborhood, or tens of thousands across the city, is potentially enormous,” Lanfear concludes. Crime seems to increase as soon as Airbnbs appear and remains elevated as long as they are active. “Criminals can learn to return to areas with more Airbnbs to find careless targets.”
From Airbnb they point out in an email that “This report is misleading as it does not take into account the general increase in crime rates and seasonal travel spikes in London, which have a much greater impact on crime than the data cited from a decade ago.” Highlights also that at no time does the study indicate that crimes are committed by those who use Airbnb as an accommodation platform.
At the same time, in the email they state that “the study reports that bars and fast food restaurants have been found to be associated with approximately 10 times more thefts in the surrounding area than a single Airbnb listing.” While this is true on an individual basis, what the study cites is that “Airbnbs are more widespread than properties commonly considered criminogenic, such as bars and fast food restaurants: London had an average of 53,000 active properties in each quarter of our study period,” while across the UK there are, according to Ibis World46,248 fast food restaurants. Therefore, as Lanfear clarifies in the statement: “While the potential criminogenic effect of each Airbnb rental is small, the cumulative effect of dozens in a neighborhood, or tens of thousands across the city, is potentially enormous.”