Claims Brisbane City Council has ignored short-stay accommodation complaints for months

Residents pushed to breaking point have exposed a surge in illegal short-stay properties operating across inner-city Brisbane. WATCH THE VIDEO

Naked tourists roaming the corridors, loud parties and lockbox break-ins are just the tip of the iceberg for many Brisbane residents stuck living in apartment buildings plagued with illegal short-stay properties.

Body corporate members of two separate waterfront apartment blocks in Brisbane have now blown the whistle on the growing number of secret Airbnb’s, claiming Brisbane City Council has been ignoring their complaints for months.

Treasurer of the Saratoga Woolstore Apartments in Tenerife Jackie Grady and chairperson of the Spice Apartments in South Brisbane Bronwyn Price, each provided council with evidence of multiple unit owners illegally subletting through the Airbnb website up to seven months ago, with council yet to take any action.

It comes after the council last year encouraged Brisbanites to dob on their short-stay neighbours who would then be subject to higher rates, in an attempt to rein in the number of residents switching their properties from the long to short term rental market.

Fed up residents and their bodies corporate have now engaged legal help to force council to take action on the rogue short-stay hosts, claiming they were negatively affecting buying power, insurance premiums and home security.

Ms Grady said she had supplied council with short-stay photos, online listing descriptions and reviews but “still can’t get a response”.

Alan Radbone, Jackie Grady, Sandra Gay, Bruce Grady and Belinda Perry from Saratoga Apartments which they say has become a hotbed of secret Airbnbs. Picture: Steve Pohlner

“It must have been before October when we started this and none of us have had a reply of any description, apart from (council) asking us to give them proof and after providing evidence through our lawyers,” she said.

“You have a building that doesn’t want Airbnb in here and they’re totally ignoring us. I just don't get it.”
Brisbane City Council is the authority body for regulating property use, with acceptable areas for short-stay accommodation listed under the city plan as including high density residential areas, or principal, major and district centre zones.

According to their development approvals, both the Tenerife and South Brisbane apartment buildings are currently approved for long term residential use only, meaning owners must lodge a development application to the council in order for the apartments to be approved for short-stay use.

That application must also have consent from the building’s body corporate.

One of the apartments advertised online.

Reviews from guests.

A council spokesman said while not all short-stay hosts needed development approval, those disobeying the rules would have their property rates adjusted to the more expensive short-stay rates if the council was provided “appropriate supporting evidence.”

“While it is an offence under the Planning Act 2016 to carry out assessable development without a permit or to use a premises unlawfully, whether an owner using a property for short-term accommodation has committed an offence depends on the individual planning requirements of each site,” he said.

The spokesman confirmed council had received complaints regarding short-stays in both apartment buildings and had adopted an “educational approach” in the case of the Saratoga Woolstore Apartments.

Emails seen by the Courier-Mail sent from a council officer to a complaining Woolstore resident, state that council provided unregistered short-stay hosts 30 days to “rectify the matter” themselves.

“If a second complaint is made after 30 days than (sic) the second report will be sent to an officer for further investigation,” the email said.

Ms Grady said in one instance, she was forced to ring the council regarding an alleged short-stay host who claimed she was running an bed and breakfast.

“Her unit is just booked all of the time, she’s making an absolute killing,” Ms Grady said.

“Council told me it was a B&B and that the owner lives in the apartment and I said, no she doesn’t live there, they just said, prove it.

“We’ve sent through the Airbnb listings, where it says the entire 3-bedroom apartment is available, we sent through reviews of people staying there, we supplied photos, everything, and they still didn’t do anything about it.

“I don’t know what else we could do.”

There are currently 40 short-stay properties in Tenerife that have registered with the council’s self-reporting system.

Bronwyn Price is chair of Spice apartments. They just won a landmark case about not letting building managers go over body corporate heads to allow short stay in long term residential buildings. Picture: Steve Pohlner

When asked about complaints made about short-stays in the Spice Apartments the council spokesman said: “As a development application and court appeal has been active over the site, Council has not been able to progress an investigation at this stage.”

The Spice Apartment body corporate recently won a three-year legal battle against the building managers after they were found subletting units as short-stay without the permission of council.

The building managers attempted to sidestep body corporate consent by submitting a short-stay development application to council, however, Judge William Everson ruled that body corporate consent was mandatory for the application to be considered and approved by council.

A crowd leaves an apartment where a wild party was being held.

Chair of the Spice Apartments in South Brisbane Bronwyn Price said while the outcome was a win for residents and legal precedence, council could have taken enforcement action sooner to stop the illegal short term stays.

Ms Price has provided council with CCTV footage of hoards of short-stay guests roaming and partying in the corridors, including people without clothing.

She likened council’s lack of action or regulation of the short-stays to never being ticketed when illegally parked in the city.

“If I built a three storey building illegally in a suburb, they’d come and tear it down, and if I parked in the wrong zone you can bet I’d be getting that $140 parking fine from council, so why aren’t they managing the same thing in our inner city suburbs with these short stays,” Ms Price said.

“How many other buildings in this city which are on long-term DAs where this is happening and council aren’t pulling it up?”

Strata Community Association (SCA), Queensland’s peak body for corporate and density living, has been lobbying the government to pass legislation to allow bodies corporate special powers to ban short-term letting.

One of the apartments on Airbnb.

SCA general manager Laura Bos said the proposed by-laws would be possible for 99 per cent of the state’s strata communities.

“Body corporate by-laws and breaches of the same can ultimately be enforced through the courts, but the beauty of this approach to enforcement is it empowers onsite residents and local body corporate managers to act,” Ms Bos said.

“This (short-stay) issue needs to be examined seriously. By giving bodies corporate more control over their destiny in their scheme, we can help alleviate rental and housing shortages whilst also enhancing the desirability of strata properties more broadly.”

CCTV footage from the Spice Apartments showing arriving short-stay guests.

Brisbane City Council said it was open to hearing more about giving bodies corporate more power when it came to restricting short-stays.

“The State Government, which has significantly greater regulatory powers, has indicated it is considering short-term accommodation reforms and we look forward to hearing more about these proposals,” a council spokesman said.

There are currently more than 700 short-stay properties known to Brisbane City Council since it introduced its self-reporting method in June 2022.

Originally published as Claims Brisbane City Council has ignored short-stay accommodation complaints for months