There were 25,816 Airbnbs listed in Cape Town in December 2024. This is 2,798 more than in March 2024 and an increase of more than 5,000 since we first visited this topic in September 2023. At that time there were 20,583 listings.
The city centre and the nearby Seapoint, Camps Bay and Clifton areas are home to the most Airbnb listings in the city. In the CBD there are more than four times the number of listings than in most other areas.
Airbnb operators tend to focus on high-traffic areas closer to the centre of cities which means less rental space is available to those that work in the city, pushing them further out to areas where there is space and more affordable rentals.
But this also often puts additional strain on transport systems to get workers back into the city.
For many city managers the growth in short-term rentals like Airbnb is worrying as it reduces access to long-term housing for residents.

The data used in this chart can be downloaded from insideairbnb.com