News Corp Australia
First published 12 Aug 2025, 4:30am
Critics of penalties against short term rental property owners say there’s no evidence those have helped ease the housing crisis.
A shocking 88 per cent of Australian Airbnb hosts warn they won’t offer their homes on the long-term rental market even if regulations are introduced or increased.
This off a new survey that also found close to half threatened to leave properties empty rather than go to long-term rentals.
A recent study by market research company YouGov has found even threats of night caps – which are proposed limits on the number of nights per year a host can lease out their property – have failed to move them.
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Short term rental hosts refuse to go back to the normal longer term rental market.
The survey which was commissioned by Airbnb revealed that two-thirds of the respondents believe their property couldn’t transition from a short-term rental into a long-term rental.
Respondents told the survey this was due to the properties being used as either a primary residence, secondary residence, holiday homes or believing overall it was unsuitable for long-term rental.
APAC Manager at Hospitable Ethan Brown, who examined the impact of Victoria’s 7.5pc short-stay accommodation levy introduced at the start of 2025, found some alarming results.
“There has been no improvement with rental vacancy rates as they remain at an extremely low 1.8pc and Melbourne’s rent rose 2.8 pc in the last year,” he said in a statement.
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Hosts say they would rather pay penalties than rent long term.
“There is also no evidence that this levy has seen short-term rentals shift to the long-term options and regional communities who rely on visitors now face higher costs without any benefit in return.”
A University of Canberra research survey published in January 2025 found there were just under 134,000 properties listed as short-term rentals in Australia in 2023, which was a 22.8pc surge on the previous year.
As of right now the figure is as high as 170,000 listed short-term rental properties, which is a further 26.7pc increase over the 2023 numbers.
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Popular holiday destinations such as the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast face the most pressure on housing availability due to short term rentals.
The industry has argued that Airbnb hosts make up less than 2pc of the entire housing dwellings in the country, but critics say there are areas which are short-term rental heavy which increases pressure on rental prices.
Queensland has become a magnet for short term rental hosts, given its minimal state-based regulations, better value property prices and higher investment returns.
Popular holiday areas such as the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Whitsundays have had major population increases which has translated into minimal vacancy and stronger rental prices.
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