A New South Wales mayor will ask holiday rental house owners to consider leasing to permanent tenants in a bid to address the housing crisis.
Shoalhaven Mayor Amanda Findley's move follows the success of the same tactic in the neighbouring Eurobodalla Shire, where 50 home owners have agreed to switch to long-term leasing.
Ms Findley said domestic tourism had slowed down in the region because people were choosing to holiday overseas again.
She said the shift was likely to have left some investment home owners without a stable income.
"We've had a quiet winter in the Shoalhaven and full-time tenancy is a good option for people who own a second home, particularly as we see international flights picking up speed again," Ms Findley said.
"We're not in the same kind of economic conditions as we were 18 months ago when it comes to domestic travel.
Thousands of empty houses
Census data from 2021 shows there are 12,794 homes sitting empty in the region.
An internet search indicated that more than 600 homes in the Nowra area were available for short stays, while only 76 were available for longer-term renting.
Of those, only five were available for less than $350 per week.
A report released earlier this year by the University of NSW and the Australian Council of Social Service showed that about 70 per cent of people in the federal electorate of Gilmore, which takes in the Shoalhaven and Eurobodalla local government areas, were experiencing rental stress.
The Shoalhaven Homeless Hub said about 100 people came through its doors each week and that it had been seeing 50 new clients each month.
Nowra crisis accommodation support charity Salt Care is already renting homes from investment property owners and subletting them to homeless people.
Chief executive Peter Dover said there were 30 houses in the program but called on all levels of government to step in and provide more incentives for home owners to consider this type of lease.
"There could be tax relief or rate reductions or something, so that we could say, 'Hey, we're taking pressure of you as a home owner because we want to encourage this social impact on the housing market,'" he said.
Ms Findley said she would sit down with Eurobodalla Mayor Mathew Hatcher and Mr Dover to workshop the best way forward in the coming weeks.
