Council must impose Airbnb regulations now
All eyes will be on the Beehive today as the Government finally lifts the curtain on its business continuity and stimulus package in the face of Covid-19. Shutting down the free movement of travellers across our border has swiftly decapitated New Zealand’s international tourism industry. What hasn’t been adequately explained is for how long the stringent restrictions will remain in force, nor what would lead to them being eased.
But Statistics New Zealand data from 2019 underscores the economic gut-punch. Average daily tourism expenditure totals $112 million. Of the annual $41 billion in total tourism expenditure,
$17b is generated from overseas visitors, while the industry supports 400,000 jobs. In Canterbury, international tourism generated $1.2b, in 2019.
Earthquake-style wage subsidies for fulltime and part-time workers, starting with the tourism, hospitality and leisure sectors are now an absolute necessity, in the name of saving tens of thousands of jobs while we ride out this storm. And they must be unleashed with urgency.
Alongside government stimulus, we can all help keep the bankruptcy wolf from the door for many businesses, by being tourists in our own country. Domestic tourism expenditure already generates
60 per cent of the industry’s overall revenue, so the patriotic call is for all of us to help plug that 40 per cent fiscal hole. Beyond the immediate challenges monstering the tourism and hospitality sectors, the accommodation sector certainly deserves a fairer go from the Christchurch City Council.
Auckland and Queenstown have robustly taken to task the rookie excesses of peer-to-peer accommodation providers and there’s no excuse for Christchurch to flagrantly ignore the crooked playing field. Legislation to allow councils to create a mandatory registration system for peer-to-peer accommodation providers would be useful. It’s simply ludicrous that whole-home and ‘‘unhosted’’ Airbnb operators do not have to abide by the same health and safety standards, regulation and compliance that heavily burdened commercial accommodation providers must meet.
The council conservatively estimates that there are at least 1600 Christchurch properties, listed on Airbnb, operating without the necessary resource consents, given they have turned their residential property into a commercial business. Williams Corporation has been routinely accused of aggressively touting its new developments as prospective Airbnb properties.
By its own admission to The Press, at least 10 per cent of its units are run as Airbnbs, largely in the central city. Its information packs to prospective investors and wannabe Airbnb operators blatantly state, ‘‘The owner may be required to obtain resource consent but the likelihood of the council enforcing this is low at this stage.’’
Breaching the District Plan by failing to secure resource consent to operate a commercial business in a residentialzoned property is certainly not being enforced with the uncompromising zealotry that has been unleashed on bus lane violators.
The council’s compliance head, Tracey Weston, tells me that in the year to March 12, 27 complaints have been investigated. Fifteen of those investigations are ongoing, but there have been no fines or prosecutions.
‘‘To establish a breach, the compliance staff must obtain evidence of guest accommodation activities that do not meet the rules that apply to the site,’’ she says.
Last week, an email was circulating within the Canterbury Airbnb community telling local hosts that mayor Lianne Dalziel ‘‘wants to attend our meeting in the coming weeks! Having the mayor at our meeting will mean our voice will be heard right at the top’’. Given the council has just closed submissions on its review of the regulatory framework, attending such a meeting would be grossly inappropriate. Cr Sam Macdonald was also invited, but he says he wasn’t prepared to put himself ‘‘in a position where I could be accused of pre-determination or a bias’’.
The mayor’s office tells me that Dalziel has declined the invitation. Beyond District Plan considerations, the tax rort needs to be blitzed. Fulltime Airbnb operators should be charged business rates, if they are leasing their entire property.
Christchurch could also emulate the Auckland model, where the minimum threshold is 28 booked nights a year before any extra rates are applied, to avoid entangling the occasional provider. But if you operate as a business, you should be treated as a business, not just to safeguard guests, but the city’s tourism reputation.
We can all help keep the bankruptcy wolf from the door for many businesses, by being tourists in our own country.