Money to be made from your spare room

At the same time, the total number of Airbnb houses, apartments, bed and breakfast units and private rooms has grown steadily from less than 5,000 in October 2014, to around 17,500 listings in metropolitan Melbourne today.

The research, conducted by Dr Gideon Aschwanden and Dr Andy Krause from the Melbourne School of Design in the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, also found that the market grew most quickly over the summer months from December 2015 to February 2016.

 “Over the summer period, around $12 to $14 million a month, or $500,000 a night, was spent on Airbnb in Melbourne,” they said. “This compares to $A2 million a month, or $65,000 every night in October 2014.”

While market growth predictably slowed over winter (occupancy rates are lower), monthly revenues in 2016 are still more than double what they were in the same month last year and they look set to rise again over spring.

 “It will be interesting to see if a similar seasonal market increase occurs again this coming summer of if we witness ‘peak’ Airbnb.”

 The research report includes detailed information on each property – such as location, number of rooms, and advertisement dates. It also includes information about the daily booking status and price of each property for each day since October 2014.

 Dr Aschwanden and Dr Krause also identified the hotspots for Airbnb accommodation in Melbourne.

 The greatest concentration of Airbnb properties is in the CBD near Southern Cross Station. Other clusters are on the northern end of Chapel Street in South Yarra, St Kilda, the Carlton/Fitzroy/Collingwood area and the southern end of Bay Street in Port Melbourne.

 Overall, nearly all Airbnb units in Melbourne as located within five to seven kilometres of the CBD. Entire homes and apartments have the highest occupancy rates compared with private rooms.

See the full report here.

Retiree readers interested in money to be made from Airbnb can find out more here.