Moderate Airbnbs and vacant properties
How it helps:
Ensures appropriate use of dwellings so that owners of investment properties and holiday homes are providing accommodation where it is most needed for the region they are located in. Many residential areas should have more investment properties used for permanent rental rather than short term rentals (and certainly not just sitting vacant), whereas more popular tourist destinations could have a higher quota of short term rentals.
The challenges faced:
A large number of investment properties have been pulled from the rental market and instead used for Airbnb style short term rentals because the yield they receive from short stay is much higher, sometimes as much as double the amount and the costs for residential property investors continues to increase, while supply of short stay accommodation decreases.
Additionally, the regulations placed on landlords for permanent rentals is far more restrictive than running an Airbnb. The recent new laws passed by the state government has given more protection to tenants but at the cost of losing landlords to other methods to make a return on their investment.
However, looking at the number of properties being rented through Airbnb and the number of people looking for a rental home now and in the future, we still wouldn’t have enough homes even if all the Airbnbs came back to the rental pool. Supply is still our top issue.
There is also the issue of far too many holiday homes sitting vacant for large parts of the year that could be utilised by many in our community need accommodation right now.
What needs to be done:
Property investors and home owners, like everyone in the community, should be provided free choice in the use of their asset, that said they should rightly pay higher rates due to the higher impact on the use of community assets (more waste, for example, from holiday let properties).
Moreover, if a holiday let or vacant property is not situated in an appropriate area, they should pay a higher level of rates again as a disincentive (such as a 4 bedroom family home in a residential area, not in proximity to tourism needs, with high rental demand). The owners have choice and should they choose to do so, the additional fees they pay should then be utilised to incentivise permanent, affordable, rental accommodation.