Olympic Rentals May Mean Real Cash for Homeowners
If the Olympics come to Boston, maybe move out for a few weeks.
When the United States Olympic Committee announced last week that Boston would get the country’s bid for 2024, Twitter went wild.
Many tweeted about the lack of adequate public transportation, being wicked excited to step out on an international stage, or questioning what new infrastructure would be needed.
Some mentioned the idea of renting out their homes.
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You get the point. So, how did having the Olympics in London in 2012 influence the homeshare industry?
“London is a market where we already had a good chunk of listings before the Olympics were announced,’’ Jon Gray, Senior Vice President of HomeAway, a homesharing service said. “But we saw an enormous increase in demand.’’
Enormous might be an understatement.
Gray said that the amount of people looking for a place to stay in London increased 13,000 percent (no that is not a typo) in the year before the Olympics began. That means the demand was 131 times larger than normal.
Okay, so how much money could a homeowner get to rent it out?
Gray said that the average rental price for London 2012 was $8,500 for the two-and-a-half weeks of the Olympics.
This is not uncommon for big events. Gray said that for Super Bowl weekend this year in Arizona they have homes going for $1,000 to some that are a whopping $225,000.
A place like HomeAway functions as a way to connect people to homes in the area they want to go — and prices are regulated by supply and demand.
As of now, Gray said there are 275 HomeAway rental properties available in Boston. But Boston has a secret weapon: Cape Cod.
Apparently, there are over 6,000 HomeAway properties on the Cape alone. This brings about the idea there would need to be some transportation from the Cape to Boston, which lends itself to other transportation issues.
Though the potential Boston Olympics are years away, Gray said for an event of this scale, people need to book at least two years in advance. It is really never too early to start listing your home.
If you have a second home in the Boston-area or want to move out for a few weeks, you could almost guarantee to make a few bucks.
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