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

    “In exploring options for a balanced policy approach to this form of short-term holiday
    letting, members have considered key issues for the visitor economy and local
    government, including neighbourhood amenity, disruption to sense of community, guest
    safety, land use planning, housing affordability and destination marketing. Options will be
    progressed further by (the department) for consideration by the Queensland Government
    in the near future.”


7.1.2    Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ)
LGAQ is the peak body for local government in Queensland, advising, supporting and representing
local councils and aiding them to improve their operations and strengthen relationships with their
communities. LGAQ are actively working on improved opportunities for local governments to manage
the short-term letting sector, largely through regular meetings with Queensland Government
representatives. LGAQ are also in close contact with Noosa Council on this matter.


7.1.3    BNBGuard Pilot Program
BNBGuard is a Sydney-based start-up that was conceived as a property monitoring service to alert
landlords to unauthorised subletting via an automated technology platform that monitors property
rental websites such as Airbnb, Flatmates.com.au and Stayz, sending an instant notification when a
listing for one of their properties is found online.

The application of this technology has now extended to the strata sector (due to strata management
companies having problems with owner-occupiers subletting their properties for short-term stays)
and to Local Governments, who are lacking data and information around properties that are being
short term rental.

Council has engaged Bnbguard to implement a pilot program, which is aimed at determining the
effectiveness of outsourcing the collection of short-term letting property data in the shire. This will
become increasingly important as Council considers the implementation of actions and responses.

The pilot program commenced in late July 2018 so is currently in the early phases, with weekly
update phone conferences held between relevant Council staff and Bnbguard. The technology
triangulates information from multiple sources and once the weight of evidence has reached a pre-
determined threshold, the property is considered an identification match.

As at December 2018 Bnbguard has identified 246 properties in Sunshine Beach that are listed
online for short-term letting. As expected in a pilot program, Bnbguard is working through some minor
challenges to the automation as part of property identification, whilst Council is providing assistance
where possible through the provision of data from Council’s spatial mapping system.


7.1.4    New Council Planning Scheme
The Noosa Plan 2006 is the current planning scheme that controls land uses and development
throughout the Noosa Shire. As the plan is now 13 years old, Council is undertaking a comprehensive
review of the Noosa Plan 2006 and the draft New Noosa Plan will soon be released for public
consultation.

Since 2006, the Queensland Government’s requirements for the drafting of planning schemes has
changed significantly, and whilst the new Noosa Plan comprises similar elements such as zones,
codes and overlays, the detailed provisions use substantially different terminology.



Short Term Accommodation - Online Platform Response Issues Paper                               Page 29