Housing review: set limits on short-term accommodation

Restrictions should be introduced on how many units in new Gold Coast high rises are allowed for short term accommodation, warn councillors.

Restrictions should be introduced on how many units in new Gold Coast high rises are allowed for short term accommodation, warn councillors.

The approval of a 25-level tower at Burleigh on the planned stage three light rail route has sparked debate about how many units in the building mix should be available for tourists.

Both Robina-based Councillor Hermann Vorster and Burleigh-based councillor Daphne McDonald have raised the issue in the wake of the city’s housing affordability crisis.

Cr Voester says the City is approving “de facto hotels” which are not helping ease the demand for permanent accommodation.

A 25-level tower about to be approved on the Gold Coast Highway at Burleigh on the Stage 3 light rail route.

Cr McDonald agreed saying some units when bought were being converted later to Airbnb where they become “party central”.

Cr Vorster at a planning committee meeting last Thursday asked officers if there could be some adjustments to the ratio of the mix which restricted the short term component.

The Burleigh tower application approves no limits but allows for accommodation of “less than three consecutive months to tourists or travellers”.

“I’ve seen a lot of buildings hollowed out on account of short term accommodation,” he said.

“For me that’s eroding our ability to accommodate Gold Coasters where they want to come and live.”

Officers in response say it is up to councillors to determine what amounts in specific cases should be for long term accommodation, as no ruling was set in stone in the City Plan.

They maintain the City’s economic strategy strongly promotes tourism, and tourists needed to be housed on the eastern side of the Gold Coast Highway with access to the beach.

What a planned 25-level tower on the Gold Coast Highway at Burleigh, on the light rail route, will look at a street level.

Cr Pauline Young said recent Burleigh tower developments enabled those people who could afford five and six star accommodation to buy in and allow families on tighter incomes to rent a unit for a holiday.

But Cr McDonald said she was receiving complaints from longer term buyers of units confronted with a neighbouring unit suddenly used for an Airbnb.

“What I’m finding now with this mixture, people are buying in the long term, then they’re finding they have party central next door to them,” she said.

Outside the meeting, Cr Vorster said his personal opinion was new developments should focus on creating housing not speculative short term accommodation investments.

The development site for a 25-level tower at Burleigh on the planned light rail route.

“It is a concern which pops up every time we are asked to approve a new high rise where developers propose units that can be used for both permanent and short term uses,” he said.

“When I hope to see a Gold Coast family make a life in an area, it’s horrible to think that these new homes may be lost to Airbnb.

“Are we building communities or de facto hotels. And is that fair to people who want neighbourhoods rather than visitors.”

Cr Vorster said the debate should be a focus area as the council embarks on a full review of the planning scheme.

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