Brisbane City Council is continuing its crackdown on Airbnbs and other holiday rentals with another rates hike and a new taskforce to examine ways to regulate the thousands of properties.
A group leaves a “secret” Brisbane Airbnb where neighbours claim a wild party was held.
Short-stay accommodation hosts were also slapped with higher rates for a second time in the 2023-24 council budget, with hosts now forced to pay 65 per cent more than ordinary residential properties.
Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said that the additional 15 per cent rate hike on last year was intended to continue discouraging short-stays while the taskforce finds “recommendations on how we can improve this situation”.
“The logic is very clear. If you use your home for a commercial purpose and effectively create a mini hotel, then you pay commercial rates,” he said.
Meanwhile, the short-stay taskforce will be developed over the next 12 months and run internally at zero cost to ratepayers.
Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner remains firm about regulating short-stay accommodation in Brisbane. Picture: Steve Pohlner
Council confirmed taskforce members would research how short-stay is regulated interstate and overseas, while consulting with stakeholders Airbnb, Stayz and Booking.com as well as property owners and body corporates.
Cr Schrinner said a statewide approach was now needed to ensure regulation tactics could be implemented by each Queensland council based on individual needs.
“These websites that provide access to short term accommodation, they are a form of disruption as we’ve seen with the taxi industry, as we’ve seen with things like e-scooters, they change the way that people operate, and in every case that’s required changes to state government legislation,” he said.
“Now in this case, the disruption has moved ahead of the legislation changes, so we do need a whole of state approach on this and we’ll continue to be working with the state government to try and achieve that.”
Deputy Premier and Planning Minister Steven Miles said the government was investigating the impact of short-term rentals on housing supply in Queensland before committing to regulating platforms such as Airbnb and Stayz.
Deputy Premier and Planning Minister Steven Miles said the government would investigate the impact of short-term rentals on housing supply before committing to regulation. Picture: Liam Kidston
He said his department has partnered with the University of Queensland to expand on preliminary research into the issue.
“This is a significant piece of work, providing detailed analysis into the positive and negative impacts on housing affordability and availability, the tourism industry, property owners and communities,” he said.
“It will also explore how the impact varies across different regions – for example the impact in Noosa is likely to be different to the impact in Brisbane.
“This research will consider a range of options, including those being used in other jurisdictions.”
Complaints about short-stays plaguing the city led to council last year introducing a self reporting system, but so far only 750 properties have registered to the system, despite the thousands of search returns when booking short stays online in Brisbane.
Cr Schrinner defended the system, saying numbers would fluctuate due to the mandatory 60 day minimum threshold.
“We’ll continue pursuing those properties. You need to remember that to qualify for this increase in rates, the property has to be available for more than 60 days out of any 12 month period,” he said.
“This is something that we have to continually monitor.”