Holiday homes could be hit in move to ease SA rental squeeze
A state parliament inquiry into the short stay accommodation sector recommends new regulation of the industry – including a registration scheme that could hit property owners with a levy.
The Legislative Council’s Select Committee on the short stay accommodation sector report was tabled in parliament yesterday, recommending mandatory data reporting, a code of conduct, and fees or levies to be charged to owners.
The committee – established in February – made 13 findings and seven recommendations after hearing from 40 witnesses over the past six months.
It is recommended that a registration scheme for the sector be established, which could collate data in a South Australian short-stay accommodation register.
This could enable annual or quarterly registration fees or levies to be charged to short-stay accommodation owners. It could also aid the implementation of a code of conduct for owners and guests, the creation of minimum safety standards, compliance with planning laws and disclosure of disability access and compliance.
Data collected by the registration scheme would be shared by the state government with local government on a “regular basis” to inform planning and council rating decisions, the recommendation reads, the report said.
Other recommendations included consulting with other jurisdictions and the industry on the formation of the registration scheme.
The Committee recommended the state government offered incentives to short stay accommodation owners and those who own long-term vacant property to encourage their property back into the long-term rental marketplace via tax reductions or one-off grants.
You might like
Committee chair Robert Simms MLC said the committee “formed a majority view that the short stay sector is playing a role in the rental affordability crisis, but we need more data to determine the extent to which that is the case”.
“It is hoped that a registration scheme would assist the government in gathering data and making policy decisions,” he said.
The case for regulation was “overwhelming”, Simms said, and followed other Australian jurisdictions forming their own rules for the sector.
In New South Wales, limitations were in place, such as a 180-day stay limit per year where the host was not present. In Byron Bay, this is even lower, with a 60-day cap.
In Western Australia, the government was offering a $10,000 financial incentive to owners of short-term rentals to return them to the long-term rental market.
Recent University of South Australia research found that efforts to impose strict regulations or outright bans – such as a ban in New York City – “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. Instead, in NYC specifically, (long-term) rental prices have increased at a faster rate than comparable cities, and residential vacancy rates remain largely unchanged,” UniSA Professor Peter O’Connor said.
| Sponsored |
Stay informed, daily
Simms said South Australia “continued to lag behind” NSW, WA, Victoria and Queensland.
“A registration scheme could deliver significant benefits: it could provide data to state and local governments that could inform future planning and council rating decisions, it could generate revenue to be reinvested into communities that are impacted by short stay accommodation,” Simms said.
“The committee identified a series of factors that should be considered by government as part of any regulation of the sector.
“I hope that the government moves quickly to action this report and commits to implementing our recommendations.”
In its 2024-25 budget, the Adelaide City Council imposed higher rates on short-stay accommodation owners – about 20 per cent higher than the residential rate – for those that lease their home out for more than 90 days in a year.
As there was no existing data collection, the Adelaide City Council paid for research to identify short stay rentals that met the conditions of its new rates structure.
Airbnb AU/NZ head of public policy Michael Crosby said the company supported “fair and appropriate rules for the short-term rental sector”.
“A lot of the suggestions we put forward were included in the committee’s report,” he said.
“The report draws attention to the fact that expensive levies or taxes like those introduced in Victoria, are short-sighted and can have a devastating effect on the visitor economy, the availability of accommodation and on local tourism.
“Short-stay accommodation plays a key role in the tourism sector, with new research by Oxford Economics finding that spending associated with Airbnb contributed $900 million to the South Australian economy supporting 4,700 jobs in 2024.
“We look forward to the Government’s response to the report and remain committed to working with them to support their ambitions of hosting major events such as a COP 31 next year and helping the South Australia 2030 Tourism Strategy achieve its aim of increasing visitor spend to $12.8-billion by 2030.”
Minister for Consumer & Business Affairs Andrea Michaels said the government “made the most significant changes to our state’s rental laws in a generation to improve the security of tenants and we will now consider the recommendations made by the Select Committee”.
