Alarm at housing squeeze

HOME sharing platforms are driving up house prices, not just the rental market, say University of Tasmania researchers — and they say it’s going to get worse because house listings online still haven’t reached their peak.

The researchers said homesharing services had so far reduced Hobart’s rental stock by 436 properties, about 6 per cent of the 7000 available.

Giving evidence at the Legislative Council Select Committee inquiry into shortstay accommodation in Tasmania yesterday, Dr Julia Verdouw from the university’s Institute for the Study of Social Change said the shared economy was less about sharing but “more about investment and professional hosting”.

She said Airbnb’s entire home listings had grown by 268 per cent in the Hobart City Council area since July 2016 and 205 per cent across Tasmania but had not yet peaked.

“Our concern is if we haven’t yet seen peak Airbnb that were going to continue to see conversions from the longer term private rental market into short-stay accommodation,” she said.

“That’s going to impact particularly on the vulnerable Tasmanians already experiencing housing pressures.”

Institute director Professor Richard Eccleston said this growth affected housing affordability as well as rentals.

“There’s been strong price growth in small inner-city cot- tages with no land, which is a classic short-stay accommodation play,” he said. “Some of those properties are doubling in price because of the demand for them.”

Prof Eccleston said most of the Airbnb growth was within 2km of major centres, which was concerning for Hobart as people with fewer resources were being driven further out.

But Eacham Curry, director of government and corporate affairs for short-stay platform HomeAway, rejected any suggestion the sector was driving up house prices.

“We are dubious of suggestions there has been a significant impact on affordability or availability of housing stock in Tasmania as a result of the short-term rental market,” Mr Curry said.

He said HomeAway proposed a mandatory code of conduct and register for shortstay accommodation hosts that included a self-declaration on fire and council regulations.

Airbnb also supported a code of conduct and rejected the university’s evidence due to the use of “dodgy scraped data” from Inside Airbnb, an activist organisation which painted a misleading picture.

The Tenants’ Union of Tasmania solicitor Ben Bartl called for short-term accommodation providers to be barred from greater Hobart and for a limit of 60 days per year across the rest of the state.

He also said investors with multiple properties should only be able to list one house at a time on home sharing sites.