The Greens welcome news the Hobart City Council has voted to seek a Planning Scheme amendment to ban new applications for homes to be used as short-stay accommodation. With the housing crisis getting worse and the loss of whole-home rentals to short stay a statewide issue, the Liberal Government should be taking action statewide.
The use of Tasmanian homes for Airbnbs has exploded while the Liberals’ have been in government. The latest CBOS data shows there’s 4750 whole homes being used as short-stay accommodation across the state.
It’s driven rising rents and worsening vacancy rates. Short-stay accommodation has made it even harder for renters struggling to find a place they can afford to live or even pay the rent. If pushed onto the record-high public housing waitlist, they wait a record times to be housed. People are doing it really tough in the cost of living crisis.
Recent Greens’ analysis showed 1 in 4 applications to Hobart City Council to convert a home into short-stay accommodation in the last six months were known former rentals. Airbnb is stripping homes from the rental market, worsening the supply squeeze and driving up rents.
The Hobart City Council has recognised the impacts of Airbnbs on renters and voted to ban new applications for Tasmanian homes to be used as short-stay accommodation. It’s welcome, but it shouldn’t be left to councils to fix what is a statewide issue.
The Liberals should take the Hobart City Council’s lead and ban the use of whole-home short stay accommodation in residential areas. This isn’t just an issue in Hobart – short-stay accommodation is taking renters’ homes across Tasmania.
