Two of the fundamental falsehoods that have underpinned Airbnb, Stays and other short-term letting platforms have been exploded by a new study from Monash and Adelaide universities.

Letting properties on airbnb is not all about sharing a room in your home, as their media campaigns have consistently insisted, according to new research conducted for the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI).

And short-term rental accommodation (STRA) has a huge impact on the residential letting market, both in terms of availability and rent levels, as the market leaders have persistently denied, despite the evidence and logic that suggests otherwise.

The AHURI report is called “From hosts to ghosts: short-term rentals for entire homes outnumber shared stays.” It remains to be seen if various state governments – who have been comprehensively conned by the industry – pay any attention to its findings and proposals, all geared towards more transparency and enforcement.

Myth 1: Airbnb is About Sharing

The fantasy that platforms like Airbnb represent a genuine “sharing economy” has been decisively shattered by the new findings.

The evidence is stark: holiday lets have become increasingly professionalised, bearing no resemblance to the original premise of homeowners sharing spare rooms with travellers.

Between 2019 and 2023, the number of ‘hosted STRA’—where guests actually stay with owners—plummeted by 23,544 listings to just 50,166. This represents a 30 per cent collapse of the sharing model that these platforms claimed to champion.

Meanwhile, ‘non-hosted STRA’—entire properties listed as commercial accommodation for at least 90 days per year—surged to 69,527 listings. There are now more listings for entire homes than there are for genuine hosted stays, exposing the “sharing economy” narrative as little more than marketing spin.

The data reveals the true nature of the sector: operators with only one listing fell 25% over four years to 55,333, while those with 11 or more properties grew 27% to total 885. This concentration indicates a rise in professional property managers and investors holding larger portfolios—the antithesis of casual home sharing.

“This indicates greater professionalisation,” said Monash University research fellow Dr Michaela Lang, who led the study. “Both trends reflect a departure from the original ‘sharing economy’ model.”

When researchers interviewed STRA owners, the truth became even clearer: “maximising profit was often the primary incentive,” Dr Lang noted. While some landlords mentioned enjoying meeting guests, the commercial motivation dominated.

Myth 2: STRAs Don’t Affect Housing or Rents

The second demolished myth is the industry’s long-standing claim that short-term rentals have no impact on housing availability or rental costs. The research provides damning evidence to the contrary.

Over the four-year study period, an additional 8,822 potential long-term rental homes were removed from the market and converted to short-stay accommodation. These are not abstract numbers—they represent thousands of homes that could have housed residents but instead cater to tourists.

“Short-stay rentals are shown to contribute to rising housing costs in areas with a high density of this type of accommodation,” Dr Lang stated unequivocally. The impact is particularly severe in regional tourist towns, where non-hosted STRA has become increasingly concentrated.

Australia’s housing crisis has forced policymakers to finally confront what residents in high-STRA areas have known for years: the sector directly reduces housing availability and drives up costs.

Light regulation exploited and ignored

Despite mounting evidence of harm, Australia’s STRA market remains lightly regulated by international standards, with a patchwork of rules that operators frequently ignore.

Only three states and territories impose levies on short-term rentals, and just two have registration requirements. Nightly caps exist only in certain NSW areas, and only Tasmania requires platforms to share data.

Where regulation does exist, compliance is abysmal. Research found that more than 20% of non-hosted short-term rentals in Sydney and Byron Shire have exceeded annual booking caps, operating illegally with apparent impunity.

With both myths now thoroughly debunked, Dr Lang and her colleagues have proposed concrete policy actions:

• Establish a national STRA definition
• Implement mandatory registration systems
• Require platforms to share data with regulators
• Conduct proactive compliance checks
• Make insights accessible to local governments for enforcement

“Accurate data is key to effective policy,” Dr Lang emphasized.

The research, undertaken by Monash University and The University of Adelaide for AHURI, makes clear that the era of treating short-term rentals as harmless home-sharing has ended. The evidence demands action to protect housing availability and affordability in communities across Australia.

The full report is available on the AHURI website at https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/final-reports/451