Europe's rental occupancy reached a record of 58.2 pc rise in June 2022 (Photo: Pixabay)
The number of nights spent in a European vacation rental increased by 7.2 pc in the first half of 2022 compared to the same period in 2019, indicating that the continent has fully recovered. These are the findings in the latest monthly market evaluation by AirDNA.
For the ninth consecutive month, occupancy continued to rise, reaching a record of 58.2 pc in June 2022 due to decreased supply that is still recovering from the pandemic, while average prices are starting to stabilise and are up 4.8 pc from last June.
With 132 pc more nights booked in June than the previous year, Croatia took the lead in the recovery of demand, followed by Norway (117 pc) and Hungary (97 pc). Although all of the top 20 countries witnessed increases from the previous year, Finland (+25 pc), the UK (+29 pc), and the Netherlands (+34 pc) trail behind as visitors start to travel elsewhere instead. Only half of the top 20 nations are improving on their 2019 results, with Greece (+27 pc), Germany (+26 pc), and France (+18 pc) leading the way in June. The worst three countries from May are still the Czech Republic (-39.4 pc), Hungary (-30.3 pc) and Ireland (-26.8 pc).
Given that the euro has lost about 12 pc of its value versus the US dollar since the year’s beginning and reached parity for the first time in 20 years, there is some pressure on rates to move higher to battle thin profit margins of property managers. The average rate in Europe increased by 4.8 pc in June compared to the same month last year, but there were some different trends among the various nations. Of the top 20, 13 saw a rate increase, including Poland (+18 pc), Denmark (+14 pc) and the Czech Republic (+9 pc), while seven saw decline in rates from the same month last year, including Finland (-17.6 pc), Austria (-13.1 pc) and Sweden (-7.8 pc).
The number of visitors to major festivals and events like Bastille Day in France are at an all-time high. Short-term rental bookings for the weekend of July 14 in France were 40 pc up from last year. The regions with the largest increase were Normandy (+78.1 pc), Hauts-de-France (+75.7 pc) and Centre-Val de Loire (+74.4 pc), with the exception of Ile-de-capital France’s area, where bookings are down from 2019 but almost 100 pc higher than last year.
Similarly, for the XXII Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in UK, over 21,000 Airbnb nights have already been reserved for the games which are expected to draw a large number of people to Birmingham and the West Midlands. There are 373 pc more nights reserved here than there were during the same time period in 2019.
Looking ahead, demand for the second half of 2022 is beginning to return to levels from 2019. While August is now on course to have a 3 pc dip, reservations for July and September are each up 10 pc and 8 pc over 2019 figures. Additionally, rates for Q3 are stabilising at about 1 pc higher than in Q3.
