House with a giant 25 foot shark sticking out its roof you can rent on Airbnb - but not for much longer

The owner of one of Britain's 'most iconic' homes with a shark sticking out its roof has been instructed to taking the property off Airbnb. Magnus Hanson-Heine, who bought the distinctive house with a 25 foot shark on top from his father five years ago, has been renting it out for short-term stays at a £159 a night.

After council officers received a complaint about the home in Headington, Oxford, commonly referred to as 'Shark House,' they issued a planning enforcement notice in November last year to ban its use for short lets.

Mr Hanson-Heine challenged the notice by appealing to the planning inspectorate, but it has now been revealed that his appeal was unsuccessful. He has now been told he must cease offering the property on Airbnb starting from March 11, 2025.

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Linda Smith, Oxford City Council cabinet member for housing and communities, expressed her satisfaction with the outcome, stating: "I’m pleased the planning inspectorate has found in our favour again and banned the use of this property as a short let. Once again, it’s been a lengthy process which shows the urgent need for councils to have proper powers to deal with problems caused by whole-house short lets."

Smith also pointed out the lack of regulation in the sector: "It’s almost impossible to say how many much-needed homes Oxford has lost to short lets because the sector is still virtually unregulated.

"What we do know is there are nearly 3,500 households on our waiting list and that short lets can cause misery in our communities. The last government promised reform and then dropped the ball. The time for change is long overdue."

Magnus' father Bill Heine, an American-born journalist and broadcaster, arrived in Oxford in the 1960s to study at Oxford University and later worked at BBC Oxford. The installation of the shark in 1986 sparked a six-year planning dispute with Oxford City Council, which initially refused retrospective planning permission before then-Environment Secretary Michael Heseltine intervened, allowing the structure to remain.

He previously stated that the famous shark was intended as a protest against the American bombing of Libya, while also describing it as a statement about nuclear weapons. After Bill's death at 74 in 2019, his son Magnus took over the property, listing it on AirBnb and beginning his own battle with the council.

He attempted to change the property's listed use from a permanent residence to a temporary one and fought to prevent the structure from being added to a list of cultural assets. He previously stated: "My father always resisted giving any conclusive answer to the question what was the meaning of it.

''It was designed to make people think for themselves, and decide for themselves what is art. "But it was anti-censorship in the form of planning laws specifically."

According to the council, the rise of websites like Airbnb and Vrbo has led to a rapid increase in short lets in Oxford over the last decade. The rise in renting out entire properties for most or all of the year has led to a loss of valuable homes in the UK's "most unaffordable city.'

The council states that these short lets, often located in quiet residential areas, can cause "immense" strain. The council has successfully taken planning enforcement action against owners who have converted houses into short lets without planning permission.

However, this is a lengthy process that relies on individual property complaints. The council has also advocated for a new planning class for short lets, which would allow it to limit their numbers and locations and apply enforceable conditions where necessary.

Although the previous government proposed creating a new use class in February 2024, this has not yet been introduced into planning law. This would help prevent the loss of much-needed housing and reduce adverse impacts on local communities.