2022-11-14 GC Agenda - Item 4 - Attachment 1 - Short Term Accommodation Monitoring Report 2022

•   Rental data reveals that Noosa has experienced a consistent annual decline in rental
    bonds lodged since 2012 in addition to significant increases in median weekly rents (at a
    faster pace than in SEQ), indicative of a demand/supply imbalance, with this market
    imbalance worsening since September 2020 as median weekly rents have escalated from
    around $500 per week to $680 per week as at September 2022.
•   Combined with dwelling sales market data, rental market data suggests Noosa is
    experiencing considerable issues of undersupply of affordable dwellings available for
    residential or worker use, with considerably higher dwelling prices and rents than in SEQ
    exacerbating issues associated with rising costs of living.
•   With the existing supply of short stay accommodation, the additional take-up of latent
    supply within these premises to achieve increased occupancy, in addition to anticipated
    new supply from commercial accommodation providers, visitor demands within Noosa’s
    carrying capacity should be appropriately met into the future without the need for additional
    residential housing stock to be diverted.


Case Study: Economic and Social Contribution of short stay vs permanent rental
A comparison of the economic contribution of dwellings used for short stay accommodation
versus dwellings used for long-term tenants has been undertaken across four dwelling sizes
– 1 bedroom flat/ units, 2 bedroom flats/ units, 3 bedroom flats/ units/ houses, and 4 bedroom
houses. On average per annum:
       Short stay dwellings provide a contribution of between $92,000 (1 bed) and $277,000
        (4 bed) in output to Noosa businesses per dwelling vs between $34,000 (1 bed) and
        $85,000 (4 bed) for permanent rentals.
       Short stay dwellings provide a contribution of between $48,000 (1 bed) and $146,000
        (4 bed) in Gross Regional Product (GRP) to Noosa per dwelling vs between $17,000
        (1 bed) and $43,000 (4 bed) for permanent rentals.
       Short stay dwellings provide a contribution of between 0.48 (1 bed) and 1.45 (4 bed)
        FTE jobs in Noosa per dwelling (paying between $35,000 and $106,000 in employee
        incomes per annum per dwelling) vs between 0.16 (1 bed) and 0.4 (4 bed) FTE jobs
        for permanent rentals.
Permanent rentals are therefore estimated to provide a contribution of around one third of that
of short stay accommodation. However, there are obvious limitations to this simple
comparative assessment. The analysis does not factor in capacity for visitors to use alternative
accommodation. Further, from an economic diversification and resilience perspective, outside
of accommodation spend visitors generally focus their spend on recreational activities and
retail, food, beverage and personal services thus providing limited support to sustain the other
sectors of the economy critical to a functioning and sustainable community. Permanent
residents have a more diverse spend profile across a range of sectors, in addition to providing
the local labour base.
It is also important to understand the bigger picture when trying to assess the relative ‘value’
of one land use over another. A functioning economy and community requires a base mix of
land uses of differing economic values. Some land uses have higher value contributions than
others when assessed purely on economic grounds, while others will have higher value
contributions than others when assessed purely on social grounds. As such, it is extremely
difficult to produce quantitative outcomes for the social contribution made from the provision
of a short stay dwelling vs a permanent rental dwelling in Noosa.
While there may be higher economic benefits from offering short stay accommodation vs
permanent rentals (noting the contribution to the local labour pool of permanent rentals may
indirectly support higher levels of local economic activity), having too much short stay
accommodation may significantly change the nature of the community by reducing the sense
of community in the local area due to the transient nature of the population. Transients are
                                                                                         pg. 132
Noosa Council Monitoring Report 2022/23