Eek. So what has the London government done to mitigate this?
Across the world, we’re seeing a ton more regulations placed on Airbnb rentals in cities that are trying to keep long-term rentals from being taken off the market. For example, travel hot spots like Barcelona, Santa Monica in Los Angeles, and Palma in Mallorca have outright banned Airbnb rentals altogether. Other cities like Amsterdam and Paris are greatly restricting the ability to get a license to host on Airbnb or limiting the amount of days hosts can rent out their properties.
A few years back, London Mayor Sadiq Khan introduced a 90-day rule, saying that hosts who rent entire properties are only allowed to do so for 90 days per year. Unfortunately, this has had little positive impact and it remains remarkably easy for property owners to skate around. A 2025 Savills report commissioned by Central London Forward found that of the 117,000 homes listed for short-let across London, more than half were being let for over 90 days, meaning the majority of entire-home listings in the capital are operating in breach of the law. Enforcement has proven painfully slow: Westminster City Council, one of the most affected boroughs, opened 499 investigations in 2025 and issued just 22 notices. As this highly unethical article demonstrates, getting around the rule doesn’t exactly require a criminal mastermind either.
On top of that, there are currently no restrictions on renting just a room in a London home on Airbnb, which is still detrimental to the market as it reduces the amount of room rentals available to low-income Londoners. So many young people and those on low wages rely on renting a room to be able to live in London, so this harms the most vulnerable.
