Terry’s View
The national sport of Australia is scapegoating, and nowhere is that rather sad part of our culture more in play than in the housing market.
News media is saturating the nation with dire reports of the housing crisis and every day a scapegoat is held up before the national gaze to be shamed and castigated.
Negatively geared investors have been blamed for pretty much everything – but they’re in good company. Anyone from overseas who touches the Australian property market in some way has also been blamed, including migrants, overseas students and foreign investors.
NIMBYs who oppose new development are to blame. So are Baby Boomers who have the temerity to want to stay in their lifetime home, rather than vacate and hand their home over to a young family – as if that, somehow, would increase the supply of dwellings.
Another favourite among those indulging the blame game are property owners who opt for short-term letting. Apparently, we could fix the rental shortage overnight if the Airbnb or Stayz homes were forced into the permanent rental pool.
Some state governments and local councils have seen this as a great opportunity to raise extra revenue by hitting property owners using short-term letting with new taxes.
But Airbnb did not cause the rental shortage and independent university research has shown that the rental shortage would not be resolved even if all the short-term lettings became permanent ones.
New research by the University of South Australia has yielded further evidence that simply cracking down on short-term rentals is not the key to solving the housing crisis.
Lead University of SA researcher Professor Peter O’Connor said: “Our analysis shows that recent efforts to impose strict regulations or outright bans on short-term rentals fail to have any meaningful impact on the housing market … Data suggests that restrictions neither significantly increase the supply of long-term housing, nor reduce rental prices.”
Victoria, the highest taxing state in the nation, has introduced a new Airbnb tax but that has failed to improve the rental shortage. Victoria’s 7.5 per cent Airbnb tax was sold as a housing crisis fix – but six months in, rents are higher, vacancies are tighter, and tourism at risk.
