Brisbane to introduce Airbnb permits for property owners amid housing crisis crackdown
Brisbane property owners will need to get a permit before renting out their house on Airbnb as the city council tries to reduce the impact on housing supply.
The Brisbane lord mayor, Adrian Schrinner, outlined the plan after a year-long review of the sector.
Schrinner said the council was set to introduce the permit system where a property could only function as an Airbnb if they had appropriate planning approvals in place, body corporate support and a 24-7 property manager.
Properties that did not meet the requirements for a permit would be forced to come back on to the longterm rental market to help meet the demand in Brisbane.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup
“If you are in an apartment building, and your neighbour wants to switch over to short-stay accommodation, the body corporate doesn’t have the power to effectively decide whether that can or can’t happen,” Schrinner said.
“And obviously people in a building will have a view on whether this is a good thing or not. At the moment, they don’t have the power to stop it.
“And you’ve seen examples, in some places, where there’s been real concern and conflict in buildings as a result of this. So we need to work with the state government to get rules in place that will help regulate this to give body corporates more powers.”
Brisbane city council already charges higher rates for short stay accommodation, and Schrinner said they will raise those rates again.
“They’re not using the house for standard residential purpose, they’re using it effectively for a business purpose,” he said.
“And so we’ve linked the rates then to more commercial rates.”
According to data analytics site AirDNA, there are more than 10,000 properties in Brisbane used for shortstay accommodation.
“We have identified over 400 properties that need to come back into the long-term rental market,” Scrinner said.
He said he understood the demand for Airbnb-style accommodation, particularly ahead of the 2032 Olympics, however, there also needs to be property to support the long-term rental market.
Brisbane is facing surging house prices as the latest CoreLogic data revealed it is now the second-most expensive city in Australia to buy a house.
The demand for rentals has also skyrocketed, with Brisbane facing a 0.9% vacancy rate and rent prices have risen 9.3% over the past year.
As the housing supply crisis wreaks havoc across Australia, other states such as New South Wales are considering introducing a short-term accommodation levy to encourage owners to put their properties back on the longterm market.
Victoria already has a 7.5% tax on Airbnbs.
Strata Community Association Queensland (SCAQ) general manager Laura Bos backed the council plan.
But she said she believed the higher priority was for statewide reform to the Body Corporate and Community Management Act.
“This would allow, among other things, body corporate committees to pass a by-law prohibiting or restricting short-stay accommodation for nonowner occupiers,” she said.
Short-term rental provider Stayz also urged the council to wait for statewide reform.
“In response to the Brisbane City Council proposal to introduce a new permit on short-term rental accommodation (STRA) providers, Stayz encourages the council to wait for what we understand will be a state-led regulatory regime being implemented,” senior director of government and corporate affairs, Eacham Curry, said.