Tasmanian councils are looking for a housing solution. Do mainland councils have the answer?

Break O'Day councillor Janet Drummond on Monday put forward the motion to address the municipality's housing issues, following the lead of east-coast councils Eurobodalla Shire and Bega Valley Shire in New South Wales, who have written to their residents to consider the same.

"We are facing an unprecedented housing crisis in our municipality, and I believe as a Council we should be doing everything we can to find solutions, even if they may be temporary, to alleviate this situation," Cr Drummond said.

Recent census data showed after the Northern Territory, Tasmania had the highest proportion of unoccupied dwellings in the country, at almost 11.8 per cent.

In Break O'Day Council, the census recorded 1520 empty houses, although a spokesperson from council said this number does not take into account homes that may intermittently be used by families on holiday

Data from Anglicare Tasmania showed over the past year found only one rental property listing in the LGA's largest town of St Helens, but said it was not affordable for a low income tenant.

The not-for-profit support service said except for a room in a sharehouse, none of the properties advertised in the LGA were affordable for someone on income support.

This included couples on age pensions, single and two-parent families with dependent children, single people on jobseeker, youth allowance or Austudy and single people on disability support pensions.

But Cr Drummond said the region's surplus of empty homes could be utilised to open up the rental market.

Eurobodalla Shire Council mayor Mathew Hatcher said after writing to the municipality's 7500 holiday home owners to consider renting empty houses, the result has been mixed.

"I would say 5 per cent of the contact I've had from people has been negative in a sense that they believe I shouldn't be asking people to do this, this isn't their issue," Cr Hatcher said.

"There's also been overwhelming support and feedback by the community who have holiday houses here but are either saying they can't do it, or they can only give a house up for three months."

He said 10 property owners had offered their houses up for social housing.

"They're taking a hit financially, but they want to make sure they're looking after someone," he said.

"Sometimes that simple letter is all it takes to make people realise we can afford to take a hit of $5000 or $10,000 over just the next 12 months to help out community, to help out Australians, or to help a family".

"To be honest, that alone is worth writing a letter. If you get two houses out of it, it's worth writing the letter. It cost us about $2,000 for the council to send the letters out".

For Bega Valley Shire Council mayor Russell Fitzpatrick, the response from the community highlighted the on-going issue of balancing short-stay accommodation options against a growing long-term rental market.

"People here don't want to have [their homes] used as permanent rentals, they'd rather have Airbnbs," Cr Fitzpatrick said.

"When the economy is based around tourism, unfortunately that's the market."

Cr Fitzpatrick said due to the response from the local community the council could not justify going ahead with the motion.

"Our problem now is that after COVID, most owners have got family members who have moved in full time, so we had holiday homes sitting around 25 per cent empty through the winter period, but the last census tells us we're down about 10 or 11 per cent," he said.

"A long term solution is to increase your density in areas - which people don't like - or otherwise have urban sprawl a bit more, and allow more land releases. As a council, there's no easy solutions".

Anglicare Tasmania said opening up the rental market may not be enough to address housing issues in the state.

Anglicare Tasmania's Housing and Community Services general manager Noel Mundy said the issue went beyond availability.

"It's also about how much rent people can afford to pay," Mr Mundy said.

"The private rental market alone will not solve the state's housing shortage. It's going to take significant long-term investment in affordable solutions including social housing".

It's something Cr Hatcher agreed with.

"There is no way that this letter for any Council is going to fix the issue," he said.

"The issue is a state government issue that they should have been looking at. But for now, it's a band aid".

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