A new shimmering 63-storey, $300 million skyscraper that was meant to provide private residential accommodation to Melbourne's booming inner city population has instead become a quasi-hotel with dozens of rooms listed by owners and investors on Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia and others.

Long-term residents in the 633-apartment EQ Tower – three-quarters of them young Asian students – now have to deal with loud parties next door, theft of their belongings and concerns about their personal safety and security as anonymous short-stay guests enter the building at all hours of the day and night.