East Coast Tasmania chief executive Ruth Dowty said an unintended consequence of a growth in visitors to the coast, matched with growth in the short-stay accommodation, had impacted the ability for businesses to attract long-term workers.

“Some of this is because of tourism accommodation, but there are also workers in the area for short-term projects who are taking up the available housing stock,” she said.

“This is an important issue that is holding back local businesses ability to create more employment opportunities and attract longer-term workers to the region.”

Youth Network of Tasmania chief executive Tania Hunt said young people statewide were disproportionately affected by a shortage in available and affordable housing as they earned less than older people and were often seen as a less attractive prospect compared to other rental applicants.

She referred to data on Airbnb listings, which showed July 2016 there were 1198 Tasmanian listed. 

This rose to 3491 homes 18 months later.

"This increase has also coincided with a decreases in rental properties advertised," she said.

"Further data is required to understand where the increase of short-stay accommodation has had a significant impact on the rental market and what responses may be required to address this."

The Tasmania Fire Service has recommended ongoing monitoring of short-stay accommodation properties to ensure visitor safety.

“Tasmania is not without regulation for short stay visitor accommodation, however, there are known severe policy gaps for fire safety in the sharing economy,” it said.

“To ignore these gaps will compromise the safety of Tasmanians and visitors to Tasmania.”