Looking beyond the Airbnb glitter

Tales of the tasty profits being earned by homeowners in holiday hotspots who provide their properties for short term rental accommodation, via services like Airbnb and Bookabach, are legion.

Those tales are helping to make short-term rental arrangements an increasingly attractive option for investors who have seen their rental property yields eroded by the upward march in house prices.

An illustration of the charms of renting via Airbnb rather than traditionally can be seen in recent data from London-based online agent Nested.

The data compares the length of time it would take investors to recuperate the cost of an average house in their city via a traditional rental arrangement or via Airbnb.