The number of short-stay properties allowed in the Hobart area will be limited under a motion passed by the Hobart City Council to stop any new permits for whole-house short-stay development in residential areas.
The motion passed eight votes to three, with dissent from alderman Simon Behrakis, alderman Marty Zucco and councillor Will Coats.
Councillor Helen Burnet introduced the motion last week and said the changes would increase the availability of long-term rentals in the greater Hobart area, which would otherwise be used as short-stay accommodation, with the exception of permits in commercial and mixed-zone areas.
"It is about balance," Hobart Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds said.
"We've got a lot of short-stay permits already out there and people will still be able to have a short-stay property in the commercial zones and the mixed-use zones so this is not a blanket ban.
"This is really just trying to provide some balance in our housing market in Hobart so it's more affordable and more accessible to people who need to rent a home."
According to council statistics, 481 houses have been approved for use as visitor accommodation, with 41 granted approval in the six months to December 31 last year.
The highest concentration of visitor accommodation properties is in Sandy Bay (129), with 84 in Hobart and 50 in Battery Point.
"All of the housing policy experts have told us that short stay is certainly one of the factors that in recent years has led to a loss of long-term rental supply in our city," Ms Reynolds said.
Before the motion was put to a vote, Ms Reynolds said councils all over the country were dealing with ways to handle the deluge of short-stay accommodation.
"It should be up to local councils to rebalance their housing market. That's what the Premier has said publicly, that's what the previous planning minister has said publicly," she said.
"We are starting a journey tonight to rebalance the use of residential homes for visitor accommodation.
"It's not about picking on Airbnb, it's about looking at a whole range of issues that affect supply but this has been an incredibly fast trend.
"Without these changes being implemented, there is no certainty about the penetration of this kind of accommodation into the Hobart rental housing market."
Amendment a 'sledgehammer'
Mr Behrakis said he expected the motion to pass, but believed the amendment to the planning scheme was a "sledgehammer where a scalpel is needed".
"If we were talking about putting some sort of control or some sort of measure to regulate the number or density of short stays [in the city] then we'd be having a different discussion.
"This is just the wholesale [prevention] of new permits from being granted altogether, it shuts off the market for anybody that doesn't already have one of those permits."
Mr Behrakis said the measure would impinge on people who rented out their properties for reasons other than as an investment asset.
"There is a more nuanced, more sophisticated way of looking at this," he said.
"Putting a blanket ban on I don't think will achieve the goal [they're] hoping for and I think it'll shut down a perfectly legitimate market from being able to be able to exist and grow."
Airbnb says move doesn't solve housing supply issue
Short-stay accommodation providers such as Airbnb echoed Mr Behrakis's sentiments and believed the measures would fail to create any meaningful change in solving the deeply rooted housing crisis.
Airbnb's Australian manager, Susan Wheeldon, said any kind of ban was a step backwards for the city.
"We are big supporters of fair and reasonable regulation," Ms Wheeldon told ABC Radio Hobart.
"[But] we don't feel that it solves the really complex issue of housing supply."
Ms Wheeldon said the motion would interfere with what people could do with the property they own.
Despite the criticism, Ms Reynolds said this measure was just one way to try and constrain an otherwise unregulated market.
"Unfortunately, this is a system that the state government has set up which is a largely deregulated visitor accommodation market," she said.
"But when it comes to entire homes becoming small hotels in our suburbs we feel that it is time to put a line under that and say that there's enough.
"We need to ensure that our suburbs are still places where people can live and rent a home and rent a home in the long term."
After the vote, Airbnb said in a statement that it was "disappointed" by the council's decision "and will work hard to ensure guests visiting Hobart have the ability to enjoy more choice and affordable accommodation".
The proposal will now go to the public consultation stage, with a final approval needed by the Tasmanian Planning Commission.
