There were 25,816 Airbnbs listed in Cape Town in December 2024.

This means Cape Town has roughly the same number of listings as other major cities in the world including Mexico City (26,281) and Tokyo (21,058) and Istanbul (29,400).

But this number is significantly lower than London, with more than 95,000 listings, and Paris with more than 91,000.

Airbnb has come under fire in many cities around the world because of the rapid growth in listings and particularly the number of multi-listing owners.

For many city managers the growth in short-term rentals like Airbnb is worrying as it reduces access to long-term housing for residents. Airbnb operators also 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.

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