Hobart is cracking down on short-stay rental letting and Christchurch has gone even further, amid concerns that Airbnb-style online accommodation platforms are pushing up rents and making it difficult for people to live locally.
Hobart City Council is moving to limit the number of new whole houses used as short-stay accommodation. Agitation is growing for homeowners who rent their properties out through Airbnb and other short-stay accommodation platforms to be forced to to pay higher council rates.
Christchurch rules require council consent for any home rented out for less than 60 nights a year for a maximum of six guests. An application will cost at least $1000. To let a home for more than 60 nights faces higher hurdles and charges.
Earlier this week, Hobart City Council passed a motion to limit the number of short-stay properties allowed in the city area and to stop any new permits for whole-house short-stay development in residential areas. Essential workers are being deterred from moving to Hobart because they cannot find anywhere to stay.
Key points on the Hobart move, as listed by the ABC:
- The Hobart City Council has passed the first stage of a ban on new whole-home, short-stay accommodation in the inner-city area
- Hobart Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds said changes must be made to regulate the short-stay accommodation industry
- Opponents of the amendment said the move would not address the deeply rooted issue of rental shortages in Hobart
“It is about balance,” Lord Mayor Reynolds said.
“We’ve got a lot of short-stay permits already out there and people will still be able to have a short-stay property in the commercial zones and the mixed-use zones, so this is not a blanket ban.”
The issue was discussed on ABC regional radio this week, with the NSW South Coast reporting similar problems. Coastal properties can be rented out so lucratively to holidaymakers via short-stay accommodation platforms, owners don’t bother to take tenants. This makes rental properties hard to find for students and workers. Families find that when their children leave home, they can’t afford to live locally.
While those who own “weekender” investment properties can let them out for big money – essential workers such as nurses and teachers, who want to move to places where they are needed, are deterred by astronomical rents.
Mayor Reynolds said councils all over the country are trying to find ways dealing with the deluge of short-stay accommodation.
“It’s not about picking on Airbnb,” Reynolds said. “It’s about looking at a whole range of issues that affect supply…”
Airbnb’s Australian manager, Susan Wheeldon, told ABC Radio Hobart any kind of ban was a step backwards for the city.
Wheeldon said the motion would interfere with what people could do with their own properties.
ACROSS THE TASMAN MEANWHILE, new rules governing Airbnb-style accommodation in Christchurch have been called by the industry “the most restrictive and outdated” home-sharing laws in Australasia.
Owners who rent out their properties as unhosted visitor accommodation in residential areas will now have to obtain a resource consent, which will cost at least NZ$1000.
The new rules require council consent for homes rented out for less than 60 nights a year for a maximum of six guests. The council cannot decline the application – it can only put conditions on the consent.
If a property is being rented out for more than 60 nights a year with up to 12 guests it will be classed as a “discretionary activity”, which faces much greater red tape, including assessment of impacts on neighbours, noise and traffic movements. That can cost the applicant up to NZ$4000 – and council has the right to refuse it.
New Zealand news site Stuff.co.nz quoted Wheeldon saying that at a time when New Zealand’s borders were set to open to international travellers and every region in the country was vying for long-awaited tourism dollars, Christchurch City Council was imposing some of the “most restrictive and outdated home sharing laws in Australasia”.
“Council has accepted recommendations that severely restrict how locals share their own homes, which will only serve to hurt jobs and the livelihoods of many at a time when economic recovery is more important than ever.”
Wheeldon said the rules would jeopardise Christchurch’s ability to secure and host major events.
She did not say if Airbnb would appeal the decision.
Written by Peter Needham
