Controlling the supply of short-term rentals could solve the ACT’s housing crisis, ACT Greens MLA Johnathan Davis believes.
He will today move a motion in the ACT Legislative Assembly calling on the ACT Government to acknowledge and respond to evidence that unrestricted short-term rental accommodation negatively impacts the supply and price of long-term rental properties.
“Online platforms like AirBnB and Stayz were originally promoted to help homeowners make a buck from their spare bedroom,” Mr Davis said. “Now they’ve grown into full-blown real estate websites with thousands of entire properties listed for rent on a short-term basis.
“Many of these properties were once available on the long-term rental market. But the strong returns, lack of regulation, and absence of protections for tenants have all combined and proved a temptation too great for some property investors.
“Estimates suggest there are more than 1,000 entire Canberra properties advertised at any given time on short-term rental platforms. Imagine the impact on our long-term rental market if we had 1,000 properties come back to the long-term rental market overnight!
“It’s time to act on AirBNB.”
Mr Davis’s motion will call on the government to cap how many and for how long properties can be rented for short-term local accommodation; to reform tax; and to restrict short-term rental accommodation to primary properties. The government should also establish a registration system for short-term rental accommodation properties in the ACT to collect data and analyse localised impacts on housing.
“We’re in a housing crisis,” Mr Davis said. “The ACT Government should be doing everything it can to bring more properties into the long-term rental market. The ACT Government needs to identify what policy intervention would be appropriate to manage short-term rental accommodation in the ACT, with the aim of increasing the supply of long-term rentals.
“My motion asks the ACT Government to accept that short-term rental accommodation impacts the price and availability of long-term rentals. Once we all agree on that, we can then discuss what we’d like to do about it. A range of policy responses including registration, regulation, caps, and codes of conduct have been implemented in other jurisdictions across the country and around the world. Let’s figure out what would work best for Canberra.
“This was my hope and expectation when I moved a motion in the Assembly back in May 2022 requesting an Assembly committee consider inquiring into short-term rental accommodation and its impact on the long-term rental market. Sadly, this work was not taken up by an Assembly committee. Today, I’ll ask the ACT Government to step up, respond to growing community concern and do this work.”
Mixed success
All three parties supported Mr Davis’s notion, although he thought that the government and the opposition voted to water down commitments.
“Sadly, ACT Labor were unable to support the most modest intervention – a registration scheme for short-term rentals,” Mr Davis wrote on Facebook. “Instead, they proposed an amendment asking for further exploration of a registration scheme to be include alongside other exploratory work.”
But Mr Davis remained optimistic.
“Labor’s amendments excuse them from taking decisive action today,” he said. “That is disappointing. But I am a ‘glass half full’ kind of guy. My motion still requires the ACT Government to genuinely engage with this issue, evaluate different policy and regulatory responses and present their findings to the Assembly by November 2023.”
Mr Davis said he looked forward to responding to the ACT Government’s investigations on this issue and addressing the ACT’s housing crisis.
“Regulating and restricting short-term rentals will not be the panacea to this housing crisis, but intervention is required and overdue. The ACT Government must attack the housing crisis from every angle and ensure its actions meet its stated intent.
“We are in a housing crisis. In a crisis, you must do everything, and you must do it all at once.
“I do not want to see Canberran renters evicted from their homes to make way for short-term rentals like we have seen in Brisbane and Hobart.”
Last year, Mr Davis secured tri-partisan support for an inquiry into a vacancy tax; called on the ACT Government to investigate short-term rentals; and called on the Federal Government to forgive the ACT’s housing debt.
