Airbnb ‘permit’ mooted by council
Christchurch homeowners renting entire properties on Airbnb may have to get a permit or pay more in rates – if the council can catch you out.
The city council has for months been nutting out how to regulate the shortterm accommodation industry.
Yesterday, its regulatory performance committee discussed applying a business rate on whole properties used for hosting short-term guests in schemes like Airbnb for four or more months a year, or a possible permit system.
The aim is to create a fairer situation for traditional accommodation suppliers like hotels and motels. Based on average property value, the council estimates a business rate would add $1000 to the rates bill of about 700 affected properties – though this would not increase overall council revenue, but lead to a reduction on the rates of other properties.
The problem is, the council has no extra money or staff to enforce the proposed moves. Currently staff only investigate properties when the public make complaints.
Home-share accommodation has grown rapidly in Christchurch. Airbnb listings grew from 283 to 3481 in the last two years (June 2016 and August 2018). During that time, Airbnb’s share of guest nights in Christchurch grew from 0.7 to 21.6 per cent. Entire home listings grew from 114 to 1471 over the same period. Of those, the council has identified 1100 properties being used for Airbnb that could be operating in a residential area, for any length of time, without necessary resource consent.
The committee recommended yesterday the council investigate the feasibility of a permit system as well as the business rate.
Staff would be asked to identify how to fund enforcing those measures.
The rates team did not have the resources or budget to carry out the changes being proposed, council economic policy principal adviser Gavin Thomas said.It would take one staff member a week to investigate three or four potentially non-compliant properties operating on Airbnb, council consenting and compliance general manager Leonie Rae said.
The committee called on the council to lobby for central Government to investigate putting legislation in place to regulate the home-share accommodation sector.
A council residents survey found 20 per cent of respondents would not have travelled if home-share accommodation was not available. Some 62 per cent would have travelled anyway.