New data released by short-term accommodation provider Airbnb outlines the company’s role in housing markets across key regions of Northern Tasmania, though a researcher says balance – and more complete information – is still needed.
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The information comes as a new Rental Affordability Index report highlighted Greater Hobart as the least affordable metropolitan area in Australia, with Launceston deemed to have become "moderately unaffordable” in recent years.
Regional Tasmania fared slightly better in the report however, with towns in the state’s North and East showing “relatively acceptable” rent levels relative to income.
The Tasmanian government also this week introduced its short-stay accommodation bill, as a Legislative Council inquiry into short stay accommodation in the state continues.
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The Airbnb data, provided to The Examiner, gives a previously unknown insight into the role of the company in the Launceston housing market, along with three other key holiday hotspots in the state’s North and North-East.
Launceston hosted the most active listings of the four as of October 1 this year at 530, with St Helens, Swansea and Derby following respectively with 180, 90 and 40 listings.
More regional areas like Swansea and Derby brought in a much larger typical income – due to the fact listings were most likely to be larger, more expensive properties.
The figures that most directly address key points of current short stay accommodation debate however are the percentage of “entire homes” listed in the four areas, and the percentage of these booked for over 181 nights.
Under Airbnb’s definition, an entire home is a self-contained listing – as opposed to room-sharing – and includes anything from granny-flats up to full homes.
Derby topped the list for entire homes with all 40 then-active sites fitting the category. St Helens and Swansea followed at 89 and 87 per cent respectively, with Launceston at 75 per cent.
The figures are also expanded out to include those listings booked for over 181 nights – a figure that effectively takes a property out of the mainstream rental market, or indicates it is likely being used exclusively as a short stay rental.
Under this metric, 18 per cent of “entire home” listings in Launceston, 8 per cent in Swansea, 2 per cent in St Helens and no Derby listings are occupied by Airbnb tenants for over 181 nights.
Relative to the local housing markets – according to the Airbnb data – those listings represent 0.19 per cent of the Launceston housing market, 1 per cent in Swansea and 0.24 per cent in St Helens.
“Holding less than a fifth of one percent of the market responsible isn’t credible and more seriously distracts from the bigger issues like the planning system, population growth and taxation,” said Brent Thomas, Airbnb’s head of public policy ANZ.
“The biggest myth of all is that Airbnb is a big part of the housing market. The reality is Airbnb is a minuscule part of the market and not making housing less affordable.”
Richard Eccleston, director of the Institute for the Study of Social Change at UTAS, said while the “limited data” released by Airbnb is consistent with research published by he and his colleagues, independent housing experts take a different view of the impact of short stay accommodation on residential housing markets.
For them, a property listed for over 60 nights cannot be considered as a permanent residence.
Mr Eccleston added that it is important to focus on the absolute number of homes, rather than a percentage of the total.
“There are 242,000 homes in Tasmania and only about 0.9 per cent are replaced in any year,” he said. “So if 2 per cent of the total stock is converted to Airbnb it has massive implications for the rental market.”
“In inner Hobart we conservatively estimate 436 of the 7000 private rental properties (6 per cent) have been converted to Airbnb contributing to the lowest vacancy rate in Australia. If almost 500 homes in Hobart were demolished few would argue that it wouldn’t have serious implications for the housing market.”
The tourism-led growth in regional areas like Derby had been a “success story” as the platform had “allowed shack owners to market their homes to a wider range of tourists without impact on rental supply”, though it was important to get the balance right.
“The best outcome is when growth in demand leads to more accommodation being built,” Mr Eccleston said. “Our overall view is that we have to develop smart, focused regulations to achieve a better balance between short stay accommodation and the housing needs of ordinary Tasmanians.”
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