Cape Town added more than 6,000 Airbnb listings in the two years between September 2023 and September 2025, pushing the total to 26,877.

The comparison also puts Cape Town's recent growth in sharper relief. While most cities on this list have seen listings plateau or come under regulatory pressure, Cape Town's listings have increased by 31%.

The city now has more listings than many of the other major global cities tracked by InsideAirbnb, which tracks Airbnb data around the word. Among 10 cities with roughly the same population size as Cape Town, only Rome has more Airbnb listings. Cape Town outstrips Sydney, Toronto, Berlin and Barcelona, cities with far more established tourism industries. For a metro of roughly 4.6-million residents, the scale of short-term rental activity in Cape Town is exceptional.

We dug into the data. View the full story and data here.