Qtown fixing Airbnb’s crooked playing field
Airbnb has proven to be the Uber, the great disrupter, to the accommodation industry. And now the leading peer-topeer accommodation site, along with its counterparts, is feeling the heat as councils move to re-level the playing field.
Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) has unfairly drawn heavy fire and hysterical abuse for rewriting its district plan rules, in a bid to stop Airbnb’s absentee owners from gobbling up the resort town’s housing stock.
At last count, 2700 Queenstown district homes are listed as Airbnb properties, commanding 14 per cent of the accommodation cake.
That’s 2700 residential properties that are off-limits to long-term renters, siphoned away from workers needing a rental in favour of the fast-bucks from flyby-nighters.
Confronting this crippling shortage of rental housing for local workers, has been top of mind.
After a year-long investigation into the impact of peer-to-peer booking websites, it’s clear that QLDC recognises the upsides such operators play in expanding and diversifying a destination’s visitor accommodation mix.
But a balance needs to be struck to address the downsides, whereby traditional housing stock is crudely morphing into glorified commercial hotel operations, in suburbia.
Following Queenstown’s decision last week, there’s been a remarkable amount of misinformation swirling in the news and on websites, damning the council’s changes as an all-out attack on an individual’s property rights – led by Airbnb’s Australasia Public Policy head, Brent Thomas.
But here’s the facts. Queenstown’s proposed changes don’t affect anyone wishing to supplement their income by hosting guests in their own residence. If you’ve got a spare room or self-contained flat and wish to rent it out for homestays, you can, as often as you like, as long as there are fewer than five guests.
However, if you’re wishing to accommodate more than five guests or don’t live on-site, you’ll have to apply for resource consent.
And if your property is situated in a residential zone, it’s extremely unlikely consent will be forthcoming.
However, if your property is situated in the high density or accommodation sub zones, you’re likely to be granted a restricted discretionary resource consent.
New restrictions are also proposed for those wishing to rent their entire property for visitor accommodation, with a proposed limit of 28 days short-term rental a year with no more than three separate lets.
As Queenstown Mayor Jim Boult says: ‘‘We’re not trying to stop people from renting out their home when they’re away on holiday. The proposed rules still allow for that. We aren’t taking away existing rights. These proposals won’t affect anyone with existing resource consent for visitor accommodation.’’
I think the council should be applauded for crafting a wellcalibrated proposal that takes aim at the worst excesses of a free-forall regime, while safeguarding the right of homeowners to top-up their income through homestays.
Many Queenstown residents are rightly fed-up that quiet residential areas have been devolving into massaccommodation, commercial rackets in the past few years.
Requiring absentee owners or high-volume operators to apply for resource consent, will also ensure they’re charged commercial rates – as they should be.
Earlier this year, Queenstown’s council fired a shot across the bows of hundreds of property owners with a residential classification. It netted higher rates from over 500 properties, helping to fund upgrades to the district’s creaking infrastructure.
Like most Kiwis, I’ve enjoyed staying in a variety of ‘‘live like a local’’ accommodation settings, including Airbnb. But what I’ve never liked about the Airbnb model is its implicit support for a regulation-free, tax dodging black market economy.
There’s a subversive and expedient undertone of selfserving greed to its operating model, whereby Airbnb doesn’t insist its hosts comply with the same rules and taxation obligations as other commercial accommodation providers.
Then there’s the gimmickry, like what ensued following the fire that broke-out in a Christchurch Airbnb in September, hospitalising six people.
Airbnb offered hosts ‘‘free’’ smoke detectors, only to deduct their cost from subsequent payments. They don’t even demand hosts install them.
Unlike hotels, motels, backpackers, or even holiday parks, Airbnbs do not face the rigmarole of fire regulations, health and safety compliance, building warrants of fitness, nor do they contribute to the cost of regional tourism marketing.
It’s a very crooked playing field which Queenstown has bravely decided to correct.