Airbnb supports fair and balanced short-term rental regulation

Airbnb remains committed to working with the New South Wales Government to ensure fair and sustainable regulations are in place for the short-term rental sector.

The current regulations are robust by global standards and include mandatory registration, data sharing, a code of conduct and an exclusion register, which is a list, managed by NSW Fair Trading, of hosts and guests who are excluded from participating in the industry due to non-compliance with the NSW Code of Conduct

This framework has provided certainty and clarity for hosts, as well as the broader community around compliance, while the registration scheme is updated daily to ensure the New South Wales Government has the data it needs to accurately assess the footprint of the sector.

Airbnb has suggested a number of recommendations to improve the current framework to deliver better outcomes for communities and support the valuable economic contribution of the sector to the visitor economy.

Airbnb supports

• Improving the current registration scheme to include:
  • More transparency by regularly publishing registration data at the local government level, and
  • A way to identify hosts willing and able to share their home during emergencies or natural disasters
• Increased resourcing for local governments to help them enforce current regulations and consideration of whether New South Wales Government agencies should play a greater role in enforcing compliance with the existing framework
• Recognition that current day caps have had little to no impact on increasing the availability of long-term housing stock

These recommendations were made in a submission to the New South Wales Government’s Short-Term Rental Review last year and aim to address the Government’s goal of maximising the use of existing homes while ensuring the short-term rental sector can continue its important contribution to the visitor economy.

Blunt measures have not worked to improve housing affordability in areas such as Byron Bay. 

One year after the introduction of Byron Shire Council’s 60-day cap on short-term rental accommodation (STRA) there has been no increase in the number of properties on the long-term rental market or an improvement in housing affordability.

Independent analysis by Frontier Economics found the unprecedented STRA 60-day cap failed to deliver on the Council’s promise it would combat the housing crisis in Byron Bay. 

Instead there are fewer long-term rental listings available and rental prices have risen to their highest ever levels with the average weekly rent increasing by 7 percent year-on-year, from $1,112 to $1,193.

Each year, Airbnb’s community of hosts welcome millions of guests to New South Wales enabling the dispersal of tourism away from urban areas and giving a much-needed boost to regional economies by providing them with flexible and diverse accommodation options.

According to Oxford Economics, in 2024, guests on Airbnb contributed $6.6 billion to Gross State Product in New South Wales, supporting 32,200 jobs and $2.2 billion in wages. Additionally more than 33 percent of accommodation spending by guests occurred outside of major cities.¹