Councils need to boost the supply of tourism accommodation alongside social and affordable homes, an Illawarra expert says, to mitigate the impact of short-stay accommodation on housing supply.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
But first, Housing Trust chief executive officer Michele Adair said, the region's councils needed to collect data on the impact of short-stay accommodation (such as Airbnb) on the community.
Last year Shelter Tasmania published what Ms Adair said was the only comprehensive research in this space, finding that 47 per cent of entire homes offered up for short-stay accommodation in Hobart and 67 per cent of those in Launceston had previously been available for long-term rental.
"That's the first thing, to really understand the size of the problem, and I think the experience in Hobart and Launceston is terrifying," Ms Adair said.
Data from analytics company AirDNA shows there are 761 active rentals available through Airbnb and another provider, Vrbo, in the Wollongong local government area, 88 per cent of which are entire homes.
Meanwhile there are 203 active rentals in Shellharbour - 95 per cent of which are entire homes - while 94 per cent of Kiama's 695 active rentals are entire homes.
It is not known how many of these were once available for long-term rentals.
Ms Adair said it was important when considering making changes in areas reliant on tourism to note that housing used as short-stay accommodation could not be simply taken away from the supply for visitors.
"We need to be very careful and be very measured... and take a very timely and sensitive approach to any changes we might make, but we have to make changes," she said.
She said councils needed to grow tourism accommodation in parallel with incentivising and approving new social and affordable housing developments.
Ms Adair said there were other measures councils could take, such as limits on the length of stays in short-stay accommodation, a requirement for providers to hold a permit or licence, or a tax or charge that could be funnelled into the supply of affordable housing.
A Wollongong City Council spokesperson said the council was looking at actions it could take to address the housing crisis through its Wollongong Housing Strategy, which included finalising a tourism accommodation review and investigating the need for disincentives against the use of housing as short-stay accommodation.
The spokesperson said there had been eight approved development applications for tourism accommodation since 2009: one had started construction, and two were superseded by mixed use and residential buildings.
"This is consistent with the findings of council's Draft Tourism Accommodation Discussion Paper, which found that local tourism accommodation venues face increasing pressure to close and redevelop as residential developments," they said.
A spokesperson for Shellharbour City Council said a minimal proportion of homes were used as short-stay accommodation in the LGA, citing a figure of about 100 as at September 2022 - about 0.1 per cent of all dwellings - but like many coastal locations, a lack of tourism accommodation was an issue in periods of high demand.
The spokesperson said Shellharbour council was looking at opportunities to facilitate new or upgraded tourism accommodation, such as the Crown Plaza hotel under construction at Shellharbour Marina.
A Kiama Municipal Council spokesperson said the council was "exploring options for improving the permanent rental availability in our LGA, while exploring a variety of tourism accommodation opportunities".
"Our area has a number of accommodation options tailored to the diverse needs of our tourist market, including hotels, motels, holiday parks and boutique offerings," they said, accounting for 970 beds.
Meanwhile a Shoalhaven City Council spokesperson said the council was investigating how to better manage and regulate short-stay accommodation.
"The current planning provisions related to STRA [short-term rental accommodation] are set at the NSW government level and we are currently looking at what opportunities exist to better manage the extent and location of STRAs ahead of a government review of current controls later this year," the spokesperson said.
"It is also not currently legally possible to separately rate STRA properties without a range of interrelated changes to relevant legislation."
The spokesperson said the council was advocating at the federal and state level for legislative changes, such as the ability to better identify, generally regulate and separately rate STRA and adjustments to relevant fiscal and taxation settings, as well as other measures to boost social and affordable housing.
Ms Adair said that at a federal level, the government could consider applying tax benefits to properties pro rata, according to the time they were rented out.
Reading this on mobile web? Download our news app. It's faster, easier to read and we'll send you alerts for breaking news as it happens. Download in the Apple Store or Google Play.
Natalie Croxon
Reporter at the Illawarra Mercury, mostly covering social affairs. Previously of the Bendigo Advertiser, Northern Daily Leader and Quirindi Advocate. Our Watch award winner.
Reporter at the Illawarra Mercury, mostly covering social affairs. Previously of the Bendigo Advertiser, Northern Daily Leader and Quirindi Advocate. Our Watch award winner.
