The Impact Of Short-Term Listing Platforms On Rental Housing Markets (Big Data) Along Bagamoyo Road, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

Dar-es-Salaam, like many other cities in sub-Saharan Africa, is witnessing a rapid increase of investment in the rental housing property. One of the major challenges affecting the market is an oversupply of rental housing, minimal transparency and long payment terms dictated by landlords. Despite the challenges, the city has become a prominent place of business, work and leisure. Big data platforms like Trulia, Craigslist, Zillow, Airbnb, Zoopla and Booking are dominating the market and making it easier for customers to find house for rent on short or long-term basis hence affecting the way residential space is traded. The purpose of the study was to explore how short term online platforms have influenced the rental housing market in Dar es Salaam, along Bagamoyo Road. Specific objectives for the study were to determine whether STLs are driving rental prices higher, examine how they were enhancing short term rental services and explore the impact of big data on decision making by renters. The study employed a qualitative research approach in solving the research problem where tools used for primary data collection were in-depth interviews with property managers and landlords, focus group discussions with local real estate agents, spatial data collection and social media monitoring for Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. The tools used for secondary data collection were government statistics from NBS and BoT, popular websites such as ZoomTanzania, DirectoryTanzania and Kupatana; and property market research reports from Knight Frank. With great consistency, results on the impact of STLs on the rental housing markets strongly suggested that availability of big data is driving the prices higher and eliminating human real estate agency services; the observation prevails highly during peak tourism season (April-October) and as a result rendering the hospitality industry vulnerable. The study further reveals that a number of long term rental housings were being converted to short term rentals by either accepting short term booking payments or furnishing them. It was discovered that there is a growing tendency towards sharing rental residential homes (co-living) as a result of the need to save money and share utility bills. In a bid to improve decision making by renters, it was observed that STLs were influencing rational decisions on reliable rental houses that were available in the market. Further observations were that STLs were augmenting a market that was once fragmented by providing a platform of information and transaction for renters and management of their leases for renters and landlords where all these activities were done separately before. The study recommended that effective measures should be taken by both public and private sectors to improve market transparency and efficient grounds for the operation of STLs - limit overpricing and control their effect on the hospitality business. Furthermore, it was recommended that the central and local government set policies and laws on co-living or sharing rental housing in order to reduce crimes. Again, the government is encouraged to tap on these platforms and collect taxes from the rental houses listed with them, implementation of which is possible with the use of TTMS operated by TCRA.