I cannot understand the logic of a cap whether 180 or 60 days as a solution to the housing shortage in NSW Australia. Even if a property was available to a renter (not Airbnb guests) for 6 months of the year that is hardly a Long term rental and questionable whether it provides housing security for a family etc. I am an in-home host in the Blue Mans west of Sydney but have been severely burned by poor real estate agency management in the past and would rather leave a place empty than rent to long term renters. Unfortunately the real estate market is self-regulated and rental prices linked to availability. When 200 houses burned down in one afternoon from a fire, rental prices went up hugely due to demand. It is unconscionable IMO and maybe if state governments looked at links between rental pricing with property conditions that might make a difference. One of the huge advantages of STR is that owners can keep up maintenance and repairs etc. While we are operating within a capitalist system, then it’s a free market and competition. They cannot have it both ways.
I worked for 22 years in welfare housing.
The waiting lists were completely ridiculous.
They did not move tenants out when the were capable of paying market rent to open up houses.
If the tenant no longer needed a 3 br house…theywere not moved to smaller accommodation.
They sold off public housing and did not replace it.
Now it is all STRs fault that there is little rental accommodation.
Not the governenments fault…
The affordability comes into it as well
This is a global problem - and sadly the short termism of politics everywhere means that real issues are not addressed and quick fixes are seen as solutions. The UK government has not yet put caps on lettings outside of London, but has removed all the longstanding specific tax/legal position of STR alongside imposing a whole raft of regulation and expense onto the sector in an effort to wipe it out altogether. Apparently shutting down the 275,000 holiday lets in England will transform the housing crisis and won’t negatively impact the tourist economy in any way. The word Airbnb is commonly used now as a derogatory term in the UK.
Yes its seems like a diversionary tactic to blame STR’s. Interesting that they do not focus on people with holiday homes! They seem exempt from this debate LOL!
Yes it’s used in a derogatory way here in Australia too!