Short-stay accommodation rush is the tip of the iceberg, says Lord Mayor

A spike in short-term accommodation operators applying for permits from council may be just the tip of the iceberg, a councillor has warned.

THE Hobart City Council has faced a rush of applications for visitor accommodation approved since the start of 2017, as operators rush to meet new requirements.

In June, the Short Stay Accommodation Act came into effect and by December 4, all operators are required to comply with the reporting requirements of the Act, including confirming if they have a planning permit if required and how many bedrooms are used.

The State Government is anticipating the first data will become available in February 2020.

Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds said the city was in the midst of a spike in visitor accommodation applications.

There have been 230 applications made since January 2017. Of the 31 planning applications lodged with the council so far for October, 16 are for either a “change of use to visitor accommodation” or “partial change of use to visitor accommodation” or for “Airbnb accommodation”.

Hobart Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds. Picture: RICHARD JUPE

“It raises the question, how many of these are new players in the short-term accommodation market and will it result in the loss of more private rentals in an already stressed housing market?” Cr Reynolds said.

“Under state laws, not every visitor accommodation [conversion] is required to get a permit from a local government — many are exempt — so the data we have [is] only those who have been granted a permit [which] may be just the tip of the iceberg.”

A planning permit is not required if the dwelling is let out to visitors while the owner is on holiday or if visitors are in no more than four bedrooms while the owner is living there.

Airbnb’s Australia and New Zealand public policy head Brent Thomas. Picture: NIKKI DAVIS-JONES

In a report released in May, the University of Tasmania’s Institute for the Study of Social Change recommended short-stay operators be registered and apply for a permit yearly to help ease the impact on the state’s housing sector.

The report authors said their conservative estimate was that 393 homes — about 6 per cent of the private rental stock — in Hobart area had been converted to short-stay accommodation since 2016.

They said 667 homes in the greater Hobart area had been converted.

Airbnb’s Australia and New Zealand public policy head Brent Thomas said the report painted a “misleading picture of the Airbnb community in Tasmania”.