Editor’s view: State must step up on short-term rents

Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner’s plan to impose higher rates on landlords who rent their properties as short-stay accommodation has a long way to go before it curtails the growth of that sector of the market.

Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner’s plan to impose higher rates on landlords who rent their properties as short-stay accommodation has a long way to go before it curtails the growth of that sector of the market.

But from what can be gleaned from the early stages of the plan, it is worth sticking with – and tweaking along the way as issues or loopholes arise.

What is also clear is that the state government needs to outline its position on the short-stay market and what it intends to do in that space.

Brisbane City Council has 679 short-stay accommodation properties registered with it as part of the scheme. That compares with the 2470 available rentals in the Brisbane City Council area, according to realestate.com.au.

Industry experts predict that short-stay accommodation will soon overtake traditional rentals unless something is done.

Short-stays are on their way to overtaking available rentals in popular suburbs Kangaroo Point, Spring Hill, Auchenflower and Ascot, as Brisbane’s current vacancy rate remains at an all-time low of 0.8 per cent.

And there can be no doubt that there are well over 670 short-stay accommodation properties in the Brisbane City Council area – the owners are just not reporting them to council. Therein lies the problem.

The South East – and indeed, much of the state – is in the grips of a housing crisis. Short-term accommodation such as Airbnbs have their place, and are widely used by individuals, groups and families as an alternative to hotel accommodation.

But we simply cannot live in a society where people are homeless, and it is much more attractive for landlords to rent out their homes and apartments on the short-term market for thousands of dollars a week – much more than they would make on a standard rental agreement.

There needs to be balance, and that is what Mr Schrinner is trying to achieve with his introduction of a 50 per cent rate hike for short-stay providers under the Transitory Accommodation Category, announced last year.

So far, it is mostly relying on homeowners to self-report that they are renting out their apartments as short-term accommodation.

Council accepts there’s more short-stage properties out there – they are just yet to be identified by its system, which takes into account properties advertised for 60 consecutive days.

When Mr Schrinner announced the plan last year, we wrote in this editorial that it should be “an issue the state government is tackling head-on too, as that is the level of government responsible for the regulation of short-term rentals”.

The state government in October, following pressure from The Courier-Mail’s Hitting Home campaign, announced it was commissioning industry experts to “investigate impacts the short-term rental market is having on the state’s housing supply”.

Deputy Premier Steven Miles stated in a media release: “This work will provide some detailed analysis into the positive and negative impacts of short-term rental accommodation on housing affordability and availability, the tourism industry, property owners and Queensland’s cities and regional communities.”

That report was due by the end of 2022. The public has not seen it yet.

The true impact of the short-stay rental market must be investigated as a matter of priority.

Brisbane City Council’s short-stay plan has its place, but this is an issue that needs state government buy-in sooner rather than later.

Airbnb, for its part, has said it is keen to help the housing crisis and provide “meaningful solutions”.

The state government should open discussions with the platform, if it has not already.