Airbnb plea causes divide among Cairns residents

Cairns residents have reacted savagely to calls for holiday lets to be turned into rentals to ease housing squeeze. HAVE YOUR SAY

PLEAS for homeowners to take their homes off airbnb and out of the holiday letting market to help ease the Far North housing crisis have created heated discussion among Cairns residents.

The calls for people to turn their holiday properties into long-term rentals have caused a rift among locals with many taking to social media, torn between the idea of helping their community or benefiting their wallet.

Residents such as Scott Pithers and Jeannie Mifsud said that it was up to the government and not private investors to ease the housing crisis.

“Should it not be the government’s responsibility to provide public housing, why is it private investors?” said Mr Pitchers.

“That’s the federal, state and territories responsibility, not the landlords or investors that are looking to become self retirees in the future,” said Ms Mifsud.

Homeowner Rosemary Ernst says the rent associated with long term rentals often don’t cover the ongoing costs of homeownership. Picture: Brendan Radke

Homeowner Rosemary Ernst said the rent associated with long term rentals often doesn’t cover the ongoing costs of homeownership, and cited that other factors may dissuade homeowners from switching, including careless tenants.

“Not all landlords are rich some are struggling and the rent does not cover the large costs of repairs or mortgage.”

“I have had a couple of great tenants but a few have been a total nightmare and the costs and stress associated with the bad ones take a long time to recover from, it’s heartbreaking to see your property trashed,” she said.

However residents like Melitta Lewis, Susan Huggins and Andrea Lapanne believe that landlords should switch to long-term rentals to help those in need, but doubt that property owners will take action.

Ms Lewis said part of the housing crisis is created by airbnb. Picture: Brendan Radke

“Part of the housing crisis is created by airbnb, properties that were once residential rentals are now raking in a weekend more than double what they were getting for a week … there’s no way they’ll change back now,” said Ms Lewis.

“Give these poor homeless people a chance,” Ms Huggins said.

“(I’ve) been saying this for months, but will investors do it?” Ms Lapanne said.

Commenter Howie Thomas alluded to laws in the USand other Australian states limiting the ability for landlords to list their properties on platforms such as airbnb year-round.

“Just do what’s been done in San Francisco and New York and bar entire properties from these booking platforms,” he said.

“Airbnb was always about sharing your home with travellers, so only allow where this is spare rooms, it can and has been done elsewhere.”

Aerial view of the main street of Ravenshoe, on the Atherton Tablelands. Picture: Brendan Radke

In 2020, New South Wales strata and tenancy laws changed in relation to short-term rental accommodation, allowing owners corporations to ban short term rentals in lots that are not the host’s principal place of residence, according to NSW Fair Trading.

However, in Queensland no such tenancy laws exist in 2022 and under the Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997 (Qld) (BCCMA) a body corporate cannot restrict short term letting in the by-laws.

Originally published as Airbnb plea causes divide among Cairns residents