Airbnb speak out after call to ban family homes for holiday and short term rentals

Short stay accommodation provider Airbnb has been slammed over allegations it has played a part in creating Australia’s housing crisis. But the firm has hit back.

A call has been made to remove stand alone “family homes” from the short term/holiday market to help with the rental crisis.

Airbnb has been savaged over allegations it has played a part in creating Australia’s housing crisis. But a call to ban stand alone family homes from the holiday and short term rental market has been slammed by the short stay accommodation provider.

The Australian Resident Accommodation Managers Association (ARAMA) has called on the government to introduce a ban on all stand alone homes to help solve the housing crisis across Australia.

ARAMA CEO Trevor Rawnsley said the crisis was “largely” caused by overseas-owned online travel agencies (OTAs), such as Airbnb, taking family homes out of the long-term rental or owner occupation mix, along with harsh new rental tenancy laws.

Mr Rawnsley said the solution was for governments to provide investors with incentives such as reduced regulations and costs so they can afford to switch their investment portfolio from short term rental to long term rental.

Airbnb has refuted the claim that overseas-owned online travel agencies were to blame for the housing crisis.

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He said the move would free up thousands of homes for long-term renters or owner occupiers.

“It is becoming harder for investors to rent out their houses to long-term residential tenants because of new laws in different states swinging all the power towards the tenant,” he said.

However the blame game has been refuted by Airbnb which says it had been working on solutions to the housing affordability issue.

Airbnb’s Head of Public Policy for Australia and New Zealand Michael Crosby said the crisis was complicated for people, communities and governments.

“The causes differ from place to place, with legacy factors – which often pre-date the founding of Airbnb by decades – ranging from the supply of new homes, the ratio of public housing, the number of empty dwellings and rooms, interest rates and broader economic conditions,” he said.

Airbnb has been working on housing affordability and growth of tourism strategies.

He pointed to a recent University of NSW report – “A blueprint to tackle Queensland’s housing crisis” – which stated that changes to short term rental rules were far from a fix for rising housing unaffordability which has “much broader and longer-term structural drivers”.

Mr Crosby said Airbnb was keen to work together on solutions to the housing supply and affordability issues.

“While short term rentals generally comprise a tiny proportion of the overall property market, we’re keen to keep finding ways that we can make a positive contribution to this important issue,” he said.

In 2022, Airbnb proposed a series of strategies to help with housing affordability and tourism growth including introducing statewide registration schemes and codes of conduct in every state and territory.

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Airbnb say many people become hosts to help with the cost of living. Picture: Airbnb

“Airbnb is focused on growing the tourism pie for everyone by making travel more accessible and more affordable for more people,” he said.

“Short-term rentals also provide a way for everyday people to stay afloat and combat rising costs of living and growing mortgage repayments.

An Airbnb survey of 2500 listings in 2021 revealed more than a third of Australian hosts said one of the reasons they hosted was to earn money to cover the rising cost of living.

“Many Hosts also do not use their property for short-stay accommodation all-year round – with many doing so on an ad hoc basis to help meet their mortgage repayments, pay bills or save for their retirement,” Mr Crosby said.

Mr Rawnsley said unit blocks must have short term letting for tourism purposes, however suburban family homes were being used as holiday letting as governments had been “seduced into allowing it under the guise of the sharing economy”.

Real Estate guru Andrew Winter.

“There is nothing sharing about it. Taking houses in the suburbs away from the long-term residential housing rental market at a time of a housing crisis is extremely selfish,” he said.

Selling Houses Australia host Andrew Winter, who recently shared insights into the property market, said the shortage of rentals was created by the government and the banks with the lending criteria “tighter and tighter” and “harder and harder”.

“There are no incentives for investors whatsoever,” he said.

“In fact they are generally considered to be terrible people these property investors that supply most of Australia’s rental housing stock. So it’s not surprising we have a shortage.”

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Originally published as Airbnb speak out after call to ban family homes for holiday and short term rentals