Tasmania housing: Pause needed on short-stays to ease crisis

As the housing crisis deepens, I am hearing from more and more people desperate for help to put a roof over their heads, writes Ella Haddad.

Labor shadow housing minister Ella Haddad with Samantha (not real name) who is living with her children in a shed after fleeing family violence. Picture: Chris Kidd

AS the housing crisis deepens, I am hearing from more and more people desperate for help to put a roof over their heads.

And all of them find it increasingly difficult to understand why the current government is refusing to do anything – especially when there are steps they could take now to reduce the impact of short-stay accommodation and free up more rental properties.

People like Shane and Wendy who are about to lose their private rental because the owner wants to renovate. Wendy is wheelchair-bound with MS, Shane is her primary carer – they can’t afford another private rental, and have just days until they move into a small caravan.

Then there’s Tammy who is now couch surfing with her young daughter after being forced out of her private rental this week so her landlord could renovate. Tammy lives with a brain injury and has been on the waitlist for seven years.

And there’s Shelley, who is still couch surfing with friends and family while raising her teenage niece, and Samantha, who fled family violence with her young children and is living in a friend’s garage with no prospect of a safe place to call home.

These are just a handful of the real faces of Tasmania’s housing crisis – people I’ve been advocating for because the Liberal government continues to ignore them.

Tasmanian Labor’s policy for many years has been to halt any new ‘whole home’ short-stay permits until the housing crisis is over.

Shelter Tasmania CEO Patti Chugg.

The short-stay sector claims the industry doesn’t affect Tasmania’s rental market, arguing that most owners rent out their properties on an ad-hoc basis to help make ends meet for their own household budgets.

However, it’s been a long time since the sector operated that way, with many homes snapped up by investors and moved to the short-stay market.

Research by peak housing body Shelter Tasmania backs that up – of the 2378 short-stay listings in greater Hobart in the first quarter of 2022, 887 were owned by an investor. In greater Launceston, 461 of the 851 short-stay listings were investor-owned.

The Shelter Tasmania study cross-checked addresses of short-stay rental properties in Hobart and found that the majority had a private rental history.

It also showed greater Hobart has a much higher penetration of short-stay listings than both Melbourne and Sydney – which has a massive impact on our small state.

The state Liberal government has steadfastly refused to provide leadership and regulate the short-stay market, handballing it to local councils to make their own decisions.

But a recent Tasmanian Planning Commission decision proved this position totally wrong, ruling that local councils can’t make their own decisions on short-stay permits because it would be in breach of the government’s own planning directives.

A Labor government would immediately pause the issuing of any new ‘whole-property’ permits until the crisis is at an end, and work with councils to allow the sector to work as it was originally intended – so that everyone can have a roof over their heads.

Ella Haddad is Shadow Minister for Housing and Labor Member for Clark.