#26270
Millie
Flatchatter

    Gee Airbnb/Stayz etc have a hard time.  Academics, social commentators, San Francisco’s Financial Controllers, and even the Australian Bureau of Criminality all come up with data which Airbnb’s marketing gurus constantly claim is faulty. 

    I for one don’t know of a single jurisdiction anywhere where Airbnb is working openly with legislators; quite the reverse.  They were roundly criticised in a 2015 Federal Inquiry into tax avoidance.

    We already have legislation which prohibits short-term lets in our Strata buildings – our NSW Legislation, backed up by case law (Land and Environment Court).  

    The NSW Parliamentary Hearing Committee didn’t identify one single fault with our legislation.  What was very evident:  every local government representative who appeared before the Hearing Committee admitted that they hadn’t followed through on a single complaint from their constituents about short-term letting.  Shameful.

    Watching Neighbours Not Strangers Facebook page (they work with data supplied by Murray Cox’s Inside Airbnb), last week’s figures on the number of Airbnb/Stayz rentals as opposed to properties available for rent to tenants in prime areas of Sydney and elsewhere, it’s obvious tenants are pushed out so that tourists can move in.  It’s a disaster. 

    No wonder Airbnb – worth in excess of USD30 billion – is so eager to peddle their spin and protect their “penetration” into our residential housing:

    City of Sydney: 6,012 homes on Airbnb/Stayz, 1,030 homes on Domain

    Waverley:  4,532 homes on Airbnb/Stayz, 388 homes on Domain

    Randwick:  2,657 homes on Airbnb/Stayz, 501 homes on Domain

    Woollahra:  1,333 homes on Airbnb/Stayz, 247 homes on Domain

    Warringah: 1,268 homes on Airbnb/Stayz, 318 homes on Domain

    Byron: 2,306 homes on Airbnb/Stayz, 61 homes on Domain

    Our Strata Manager/Strata Committee left us in no doubt this week; given the possibility to vote to pass a by-law on this issue, they will vote in a by-law which allows our building to be advertised again on hundreds of websites as a  cheap/budget hotel, motel, serviced apartments, backpackers lodge…

    Residential housing is for residents. Investors can and always have rented their properties…to tenants.  That goes for home/flat-shares also. 

    JimmyT, keep up your reporting.  There seems to be so much media on Airbnb which suspiciously resemble ‘Cash for Comment’ and we simply don’t have a voice.