Australia: Short-term rental property owners will now require a permit to rent out units on platforms such as Airbnb as the result of a first-of-its-kind 12-month review of the activity in the sector.
Brisbane lord mayor Adrian Schrinner handed down the report into short-term letting at the city council this week, and the council is now set to introduce a permit system that would require a property owner to obtain the correct planning approvals, body corporate support and a 24-7 property manager.
The legislation is designed to open up housing supply for long-term renters in the city and any properties failing to meet the requirements for a short-term rental permit would be returned to the long-term market under the city council plans.
Schrinner said: “If you are in an apartment building, and your neighbour wants to switch over to short-stay accommodation, the body corporate doesn’t have the power to effectively decide whether that can or can’t happen. And obviously people in a building will have a view on whether this is a good thing or not. At the moment, they don’t have the power to stop it.
“You’ve seen examples, in some places, where there’s been real concern and conflict in buildings as a result of this, so we need to work with the state government to get rules in place that will help regulate this to give body corporates more powers,” he added.
The lord mayor confirms that the higher rates for short-term rentals than long-term rentals in Brisbane are set to increase again.
Brisbane city council already charges higher rates for short stay accommodation, and Schrinner said they will raise those rates again.
Short-term rental data and analytics provider, AirDNA, says that there are more than 10,000 short-term rental properties in Brisbane listed on platforms such as Airbnb and Stayz [part of Expedia Group]. According to Schrinner, over 400 of those properties have been identified as failing to meet the short-term rental permit requirements and will be returned to the long-term rental market.
Brisbane, along with the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and North Queensland are due to host the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, some 14 years after the Gold Coast hosted the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Ahead of the 2032 Games, a state government report identified that “thousands more hotel rooms” are needed to meet the anticipated demand from guests, tourists and spectators.
In 2018 during the Gold Coast Games, more than 11,000 guests stayed in short-stay accommodation.
Meanwhile in August last year, the City of Melbourne approved new short-term rental regulations in principle, which included introducing registration fees of up to $350 a year and a mandatory 180-day renting cap.
In a video response to the Schrinner administration announcement in Brisbane, Mitchell Price, CEO of The Australian & New Zealand Short Term Rental Association [ASTRA], said: “ASTRA supports the recommendations of the Schrinner administration to establish a register and a code of conduct for short-term rentals in Brisbane.
“The report goes as far to say that our short-term rentals only represent less than one per cent of the housing stock in Brisbane. This is something that we have been saying consistently across the country and we commend the government of Brisbane City Council for their leadership in supporting no night caps in short-term rentals here in Brisbane.
“They also haven’t introduced an additional levy and they’re calling on the state government to step up here and introduce a state-based register and code of conduct.
“Now, the report doesn’t all come with good news. The report calls on changes to strata laws in Brisbane. That is something we have a grave concern about, allowing strata to be able to control whether short-term rentals are in or out of buildings. That is something that, as an industry, we don’t support.
“A robust code of conduct with teeth can ensure that the right guests are staying in the right properties without having to ban short-term rentals from buildings. We also want to ensure that the rights of mum and dad property owners are protected,” he added.
