Landlords cashing in on Comm Games boom

AIRBNB listings show the extent of the Games boom – in Surfers Paradise, where median house rent is $600, entire homes and private rooms are on the rental market for an average nightly price of $772 for the Games, which run from April 4-15.

That reprsents a 45.27 per cent increase on the return from a traditional holiday period over 12 days spanning Christmas and New Year, when average Airbnb nightly prices sit around $487.

Further inland at Robina, home to a median rental price of $360, the same accommodation options are up a whopping 76.58 per cent from the Christmas peak period to the April stint, with an average nightly rent of $688.

Competition is fierce, with 275 per cent more people on the hunt for short-term rentals in the Gold Coast and Tweed regions during the Games.

Local Airbnb listings have recorded a year-onyear growth of 73 per cent, according to the company’s latest data.

Just over six months ago, the average Gold Coast Airbnb host made about $3900 each year – that has since increased to $5700 a year, with a listing booked for just 32 nights.

“We reached critical mass in Sydney and were planning to launch our second operation in Melbourne but due to the demand, we launched second on the Gold Coast,” said HeyTom director Phillip Rose, whose service provides furnishing, advertising, guest management and maintenance for Airbnb properties.

Mr Rose said there was a natural uptake around the Christmas and New Year period.

“We grow maybe 20 per cent at this time of year,” Mr Rose said. “Some of those are people ending conventional leases and then listing their properties, others are owners going away for the holiday period.”