Editorial: Affordability must be fixed

EDITORIAL: Something needs to be done about the very real housing affordability crisis that plagues Hobart.

There are 5500 Airbnb listings in Tasmania, including 1300 in the Hobart City Council area alone. Picture: LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP

THE market always eventually steps in to fill a supply vacuum in any sector, but it takes time — sometimes a long time. Such is the case with Tasmania’s accommodation sector. As we reveal today, for the first time short-stay accommodation provider Airbnb has revealed how many Tasmanian properties are listed on its platform — and it’s a mind-boggling 5500, including 1300 in the Hobart City Council area alone. The reason? It’s relatively easy money if you own a property, and it’s on tap at the moment.

As we reported on Saturday, there has been a 106 per cent increase over the past three years in the number of visitors to Tasmania using hosted accommodation, compared to just 5 per cent over the same period for hotels and motels. Partly that is because our existing hotels have reached capacity, and the market is addressing that — with five new hotels to open in Hobart over the next year. Economists say we can therefore expect the Airbnb demand to soften.

But can we? Perhaps what we are seeing with the increasing popularity of online-booked short-stay accommodation is a trend change. The Tasmanian Accommodation Investment Report out last week showed that short-stay accommodation now accounts for one in every five visitor nights in Tasmania — twice as big as the caravan park market, and five times more than youth hostels and backpackers. In fact, a total of 258,543 visitors stayed at Airbnb-type listings in Tasmania in the year to June. That compares to 610,178 who stayed in hotels and motels. Tight supply of hotel rooms might be a factor, but increasing numbers of people are turning to Airbnb and Stayz and the like as their preference. It’s a bit like the popularity of bed and breakfasts a few decades ago. People like that it’s cheaper and more homely than a hotel experience. Renting a house or unit also delivers a more authentic travel experience than staying in a hotel or a motel.

This is all cold comfort for those trapped in Hobart’s ever-tightening housing market where demand for rentals far exceeds the stock available. The number of listings Airbnb has revealed today is higher than anyone thought and while not all stand-alone homes, those on that list that are would likely otherwise have been in the private rental market. That, of course, only pushes up the price of those few homes still available to lease (and at the same time as investor numbers have dramatically declined, meaning — again — fewer properties in the pool). And so if the popularity of short-stay accommodation does not diminish — and there are no signs it will — we need to be looking at other options to help the market address this very real housing affordability crisis that plagues Hobart.

Enter outgoing Real Estate Institute president Tony Collidge. On Friday he wrote a very thoughtful piece for our Talking Point pages where he suggested a range of changes that would help grow our capital city’s housing stock — and so ease cost pressures. Top of that list was to amalgamate the five Hobart councils “to create a structure to address issues for the betterment of all Hobartians”, followed by a call to remove the planning process from councils and instead give it to a new Planning and Infrastructure Department. Both ideas have merit but are likely a bridge way too far for a government with a steady-as-she-goes mentality. But something really does need to be done, and soon.