Thousands of Airbnb apartments disappeared from Budapest

It has been a tough year for those working in short-term housing: it is not enough for both the government and the capital to restrict the market, the sector is also struggling to survive because of the coronavirus epidemic.

Ádám Ribarics is the head of Budapest Residence. Their company dealt with the renting and operating of almost two hundred apartments in Budapest before the epidemic. However, 40 to 50 per cent of homeowners switched recently from Airbnb to long-term housing, and Ribarics estimates that 20 to 30 per cent will certainly not return to short-term housing. Accordingly, it can already be seen that the properties that can be rented for €280 (HUF 100,000) per month have appeared en masse in Budapest, and a big part of them, according to Rentigo.com, are former Airbnb apartments, writes 24.

Currently, 20-30 per cent of the apartments in Budapest Residence are occupied. Without exception, they are rented by Hungarians. It is true that they are taking out flats for the long term, but as prices are very low, the company’s revenue has fallen by 80 per cent from the usual. According to Ribarics, it can already be stated that the number of Airbnb apartments will decrease to 60-70 per cent in Budapest. The drastic fall can already be experienced:

in the autumn of 2015, Airbnb offered 5,200 accommodations in Budapest, and by the summer of 2020, this number had almost doubled. Now, however, we are once again closer to the figure of five years ago, since the short-term housing market monitoring site currently has just over 7,000 Airbnb apartments in the capital.

The roughest decline can be observed in the inner districts, which are the main tourist destinations. In District VII only, more than a thousand apartments disappeared from the market in a few months. But in District VI, many people were also able to switch to long-term housing, where the number of apartments available on Airbnb decreased by a third.

Ádám Ribarics, on the other hand, can already see the light at the end of the tunnel. In a short time, 300 bookings were received by them in April and May, after it was revealed that the effect of coronavirus vaccinations could be felt by the spring. Mostly the English and the Irish flocked to the apartments.