13 MAY 2020
There’s no doubt that Airbnb will make a comeback after the pandemic. So where are we at, as a nation, with holiday lets?
The online holiday letting agency has apparently suffered an 85 per cent downturn in global business, knocking an estimated $30 billion off its value as it heads for a long-delayed float on the sharemarket.
For those who bought or sub-let multiple properties to run them as businesses – as many as 60 handled by one host, according to a recent report – the end of tourism as we know it has been devastating.
Apartment residents who have battled for years to keep holiday rentals out of their buildings have welcomed the bursting of the tourism bubble as a silver lining to the coronavirus cloud.
But there is a growing sense that when Airbnb comes back, it will do so with a vengeance. Already, according to an article in Forbes magazine, forward bookings are up in countries much harder hit by COVID-19 than Australia has been.
With all that in mind, the Owners Corporation Network (OCN) will be holding an online webinar on Wednesday, May 20, at 1pm, where chair Jane Hearn will explain how NSW apartment owners can use new laws to prepare for the Airbnb rebound.
> Full article on The Australian Financial Review
Jimmy Thomson