2019-02-12 Attachment 1 to Item 7 - Short Term Accom Online Platform Issues Paper

The changes to short term letting rules include:
   Hosts of houses and apartments in the greater Sydney are will only be able to let properties for
    up to 180 nights per year. There is no automatic cap in regional areas, but councils will be able
    to set their own limits, however they may not be less than 180 days (note that Byron Shire Council
    currently has a limit of 90 days and is opposed to the State’s 180 day cap).
   Changes to strata legislation to empower owner's corporations to pass bylaws with a 75%
    majority banning short-term letting in their buildings, but not on properties which are owner-
    occupied.
   Airbnb and other operators will be required to share their data with the New South Wales
    Government, as a compliance mechanism.
   There will be a Mandatory Code of Conduct that online booking platforms are required to sign up
    to, which will address issues such as noise and disruptive guests. If two serious breaches occur
    in any two-year period, the property will be banned from all platforms for five years.
   The Department of Fair Trading will also be given new powers to police the online platforms and
    letting agents, and will use the data supplied by the platforms to assess complaints.

Notably, the new laws explicitly state that short-term holiday letting is allowed in residential areas.

In the latter part of 2018, the NSW Government sought feedback on the proposed amendments to
planning rules and prepared a publicly available Explanation of Intended Effect detailing the
proposed amendments. The consultation process closed on 16 November 2018.

It is worth noting that critics of the NSW scheme have claimed that a 180 day limit will have minimal
impact, as most short-term properties are let for less than half of each year anyway.


6.4      Tasmanian Government
Due to a growing tourism sector (much of it thanks to MONA in Hobart) and an increasing resident
population, Tasmania is struggling with a serious shortage of affordable housing and available long-
term rental properties.

Tasmania already has a legislated permit system in place for short-term letting properties. This was
introduced on 1st July 2017. Permits are required for all properties over 300 square metres other
than principle places of residence – in other words investment properties are included but own
homes are not required to register.

At a recent Australian Housing & Urban Research Institute conference titled “Disrupting the housing
market”, the Hon Roger Jaensch MP, Minister for Housing Tasmania, outlined a range of measures
to help deal with their housing shortage.

The conference was also advised that Tasmania was set to introduce legislation to enforce
compliance with the permit system for short-term lettings and also to provide for steep fines for non-
compliance. This was foreshadowed publicly in August 2018 but has yet to be introduced to
parliament.

Under the plan, online platforms will have to exhibit the permit number or permit exemption
associated with properties listed. Under the new legislation, platforms like Airbnb and Stayz will have
to provide the government with quarterly data of all listings on their sites. This data will be passed
from the State to local governments, so they can match the property addresses with their permit
listings.



Short Term Accommodation - Online Platform Response Issues Paper                                 Page 22