DEAR News Of The Area,
IN all the housing crisis talk by Federal or State governments, the biggest elephant in the room is unhosted Airbnbs, entire home Short Term Rental Accommodation (STRA).
Homes that should be available for first-home buyers, normal buyers and long-term renters are instead being bought up for Airbnb during the worst housing emergency on record.
In the Coffs Harbour area there are 860+ entire home listings on Airbnb! These homes are empty 60-75% of the year!
Coffs has a Rental Vacancy Rate of 0.78-1.1%, almost like a chronic disease.
The owner ‘Hosts’ enjoy considerable taxation benefits while taking homes out of the housing mix to house visiting tourists.
Tourism has a definite place, but not at the expense of people in homes.
Plus, empty houses are zero spenders! Full-time residents spend 365 days a year on all manner of goods and services. They volunteer, and so forth.
Airbnb are commercial businesses without commercial regulations, all happening in residential areas.
Think party houses, empty ghost houses or nuisance antisocial behaviours impacting neighbourhoods.
We’ve got housing wrong way around. We’ve got tourists staying in residential entire homes and residents staying in motels or homeless because they can’t get a long term rental. How is that right?
I can only hope governments take this issue seriously and act to make changes.
Email them if you agree or if you have been moved on from your rental to make way for an Airbnb.
It’s a worldwide problem with a common denominator, Airbnb.
Other countries are acting.
Regards,
Denise Folkard,
Emerald Beach.
You can help your local paper.
Make a small once-off, or (if you can) a regular donation.
We are an independent family owned business and our newspapers are free to collect and our news stories are free online.
Help support us into the future.
