In more than fifteen years, Airbnb has not only shaken up the tourism sector, but has also left its mark on the property market. Like many other cities, Brussels is feeling the impact of Airbnb on the cost of living.
Brussels cannot compete with Paris, Rome or London in terms of tourist appeal, but the Belgian capital is nevertheless popular with Airbnb landlords.
According to data company Inside Airbnb, there are around 6,500 apartments and houses being rented out via the platform in the capital.
This is an estimate, as Airbnb does not disclose its figures. At first glance, the Brussels figure does not seem very high, but in the 15 years that the American rental platform has been in existence, Airbnb's impact on the property market has only grown.
Research by the VUB, based on the AirDNA database, shows that around 5,000 homes have disappeared from the Brussels rental market, representing around 1% of the total supply.
According to the Brussels Institute for Statistics and Analysis (BISA), at least half of these, 2,400, are affected. According to these figures, this would represent 0.7% of the total supply.
"The effect varies greatly depending on the neighbourhood," co-author of the report, Xavier May (ULB), tells The Brussels Times.
"In some neighbourhoods, a significant proportion of homes are used as tourist accommodation, while in others, none are. In Brussels, the Pentagone, in the city centre, is particularly attractive to Airbnb and similar companies. Between 15% and 33% of homes there have been converted into tourist accommodation."
According to the BISA report, the strong growth in the number of furnished tourist accommodations has led to a decline in the number of affordable rental properties in the Brussels-Capital Region.
This makes it more difficult for part of the population to find affordable housing, especially for people with the lowest incomes. Pieter-Paul Verhaeghe, a sociologist at the VUB, also came to this conclusion in his 2022 study.
Professional landlords
"It is mainly large, professional landlords who rent out at least three properties who are responsible for this. They could rent their properties to local residents, but they do not do so because they can generate more income through Airbnb. As a result, part of the rental market is disappearing," he says.
"We calculated that for every additional Airbnb listing per 100 homes, the rent rises by 1.6% above inflation. That is only an average: in neighbourhoods where there are more Airbnbs, let’s say 5 per 100 homes, such as the Pentagone, the price rises more, by an average of 8% over a period of three years. You see the same thing in other countries. It is similar to what you see in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Paris and Berlin," Verhaeghe explains to The Brussels Times.
It is not only low-income earners who are affected. A study by the Wharton School, the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, found that the presence of Airbnb in American cities is mainly detrimental to educated, white tenants with high incomes.
They prefer homes close to all kinds of local amenities. That is also what tourists are interested in.
Pieter-Paul Verhaeghe: "In Brussels, most Airbnb and similar accommodation can be found in the Pentagone and in the neighbourhood around the European institutions. In other words, in Saint-Gilles, Ixelles and Etterbeek, where many young people live. In the poorest neighbourhoods, Anderlecht and Molenbeek, there are very few Airbnbs. So it is more the middle-class and lower-middle-class neighbourhoods that are affected. It could have a knock-on effect: young people may move to less expensive neighbourhoods due to higher prices, causing prices to rise there as well."
Xavier May emphasizes that it is very difficult to measure the exact impact of Airbnb on the property market.
"There are no statistics for this in Brussels or Belgium. However, they do exist in other countries. Many case studies show an increase in property rental and sale prices linked to Airbnb,’ he says.
Effect on house prices
A comparative analysis of 25 European tourist cities, including Brussels, indicates that a one percentage point increase in the density of Airbnb accommodations is associated with a 2.9% increase in house prices. There are also studies that suggest a domino effect: as prices rise in the centre, they also rise in more peripheral neighbourhoods. Nevertheless, the exact impact of Airbnb on the rise in house and apartment prices is very difficult to quantify.
Pieter-Paul Verhaeghe: "Abroad, there has been an increase in house prices, but we have found no evidence of this in Brussels. This may be because we only measured over a three-year period. It is possible that the property market is evolving more slowly."
What ìs certain is that there is growing protest against Airbnb worldwide. City councils are taking measures against the rise of rental platforms.
According to researchers and critics, the platform is disrupting the market, as stated in the BISA report.
Among other things, the Brussels statistical institute points to the fact that around a quarter of Airbnb listings in the capital are offered by large players who rent out three or more apartments at the same time.
The original idea behind Airbnb – a peer-to-peer platform where private individuals rent out spare rooms or apartments to visitors – is thus becoming less prominent. It has become an attractive business model for commercial players.
Cities around the world are resisting the role that Airbnb is thus beginning to play. This is also the case in Brussels, which sees the large-scale rental of properties in tourist centres as a way of circumventing regulations for the hotel sector.
The city introduced stricter controls, which resulted in 472 apartments being returned to the regular rental market, according to figures released in September last year.
Xavier May is certainly not opposed to more regulation of Airbnb, but he also says that we should not overestimate its impact. "It is not Airbnb that is causing prices in Brussels to rise sharply. If politicians want to change the fact that housing has become unaffordable for many people in Brussels, they should look at other measures. Airbnb does not play a crucial role in this. It is only one of the factors contributing to the problem."
