Airbnb’s submission to NSW Short-Term Rental Review

Airbnb’s submission to the New South Wales Government’s Short-Term Rental Accommodation Review demonstrates an ongoing commitment to work with the Government to build a fair and sustainable regulatory framework for the industry.

Airbnb helped implement the current regulations in close partnership with the State Government, which are robust by global standards and include mandatory registration, an exclusion register, data sharing and a code of conduct.

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

Airbnb’s recommendations support 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.

Last year, Airbnb’s community of Hosts welcomed over 3 million guests to New South Wales with Airbnb 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 the year to March 2023, guests on Airbnb spent a staggering $3.65 billion in New South Wales, supporting 27,900 jobs and contributing $4.36 billion to Gross State Product. Additionally 64 percent of the total economic impact in New South Wales was attributed to regions outside Sydney. 

Airbnb continues to support balanced and evidence-based regulation of short-term rentals, and suggests a number of recommendations to improve the current framework to better address the current housing pressures. 

Recommendations in the submission include: 

• Removal of the current day caps on short-term rentals that apply in select Local Government Areas across the state, as they reduce accommodation options and have had little to no impact on increasing the availability of long-term housing stock

• Explore the introduction of a sustainable tourism levy, at an appropriate rate of 3-5 percent, to support social and affordable housing projects

• Improve the current registration scheme to include:
  • Host ID verification
  • Whether a short-term rental is a Host’s primary home  
  • 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

• A tiered approach to annual registration fees, taking into account the different usage of short-term rental properties, with increased fees used to further resource compliance and enforcement efforts

• 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

• Encouraging local governments to partner with Airbnb to deploy the compliance capabilities of the Airbnb City Portal to support enforcement efforts

Susan Wheeldon, Airbnb Country Manager for Australia and New Zealand, said: “Airbnb’s message is clear – we want to be a responsible partner to governments and communities to create fair and sensible rules for home sharing. 

“We understand Governments continue to navigate unique, complex challenges – including housing affordability. We want to play a role in finding sensible, long-term solutions to help increase the housing supply and work with policymakers to balance the benefits of home sharing with the needs of the wider community.

“Hosting is an economic lifeline for many amidst a cost of living crisis, with a recent study finding 40 percent of Aussie Hosts say the money they earn from Airbnb has helped them stay in their homes. 

“We support a move away from measures such as day caps, which locally and internationally, have not worked to improve housing affordability and availability. Instead, we recommend broader measures such as fair and sustainable tourism levies, which would raise valuable revenue for the State Government to build affordable housing.” 

Read the full submission, here.