VANCOUVER – The home-sharing service Airbnb says it doesn’t believe it’s having a negative impact on rental vacancies in Vancouver.
A new report released by the company today based on 2015 statistics says that more than half of the people who rent out their homes do so to afford their cost of living.
There are over 4,200 active Airbnb hosts in Vancouver.
The report says the average host makes an income of about $6,500 annually by occasionally renting out space and uses at least half of what it makes to pay for their rent or mortgage, or to cover the cost of household items like groceries.
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More than a quarter of listings were for private or shared rooms in 2015, with the rest listed as entire homes.
The report says more than 80 per cent of all listings were shared for less than 180 days, which Airbnb says signals that people aren’t keeping properties vacant to profit on sharing but rather are listing their space when they’re away.