It’s disappointing the Legislative Council has today voted down a 5% levy on short stay accommodation bookings.
While it isn’t the action Tasmanians needed on short stay, it was at least a small nod to the industry’s negative impact on rents and housing supply, and a modest revenue-raising measure for a broken budget.
Short stay accommodation has stripped thousands of homes from the rental market and driven up rents. Finding an affordable place to live has become basically impossible, particularly in Hobart where more than 700 whole homes are on the short stay market.
Yet the Liberals have sat on their hands and let it happen. Real action is urgently needed.
The Legislative Council’s vote against this inadequate measure should be a clear signal to the Liberals that they need to go back to the drawing board and present some policies which actually rein in the number of whole homes being used as short stay accommodation.
Luckily for them, the Greens have been sketching a picture of what proper short stay accommodation regulation would look like for years. We must stop new whole homes being converted into Airbnbs and phase out existing whole home listings in residential areas where rents are high and homes are too few.
