The number of properties listed as short-term rentals across New South Wales has surged by 42% since 2021 to exceed 45,000, with the state’s planning minister to review proposed annual caps later this year.
Paul Scully said his department would interrogate the calls for 60-day caps, amid pressure from mayors to allow councils to set their own limits to deal with the rise in listings that they say is adding to the statewide housing crisis.
Department of planning figures obtained by Guardian Australia reveal that 45,209 short-term rentals are now registered, an increase of 13,000 since December 2021.
Of those, almost 30,000 were “non-hosted” properties – meaning the renter can occupy the whole property. About 16,000 are registered as “hosted” dwellings.
The number of non-hosted homes has risen from 20,999 at the end of 2021 to 29,289, accounting for the vast majority of the overall rise in listings across the state. The rise is of concern to mayors and housing affordability advocates.
The NSW south coast accounts for the most listings anywhere in the state, with more than 4,000 properties listed in the Shoalhaven local government area, including the tourist hotspots of Berry, Kangaroo Valley and Jervis Bay, accounting for 7.5% of private dwellings.
The situation is so dire that the Shoalhaven mayor, Amanda Findley, last year wrote to residents asking them to consider putting their holiday rentals on to the long-term rental market while insisting they were “certainly contributing” to housing stress.
“Our immediate goal is to help alleviate some of the pressure and buy us some time as we await housing investment from the federal and state governments,” Findley said.
She wants the council to be able to introduce strict caps on short-term rentals and to be able to separately rate them so “they contribute more broadly to the area and its maintenance”.
The Central Coast comes in second with 3,307 homes listed as private rentals, with the northern beaches coming in third, with 2,514.
Byron shire has the fourth most properties registered of all local government areas, but the 2,440 properties account for 16% of all private dwellings.
The council has been on a mission to more tightly regulate short-term rentals, which the mayor, Michael Lyon, believes are pushing up rental prices and adding to the region’s acute housing crisis.
The Independent Planning Commission last week advised that the council should be allowed to impose a 60-day cap on short-term rentals after Byron last year attempted to introduce a 90-day cap – halving the cap allowed in other areas.
This was welcomed by Lyon but it was met with a caution from Airbnb, which said any such measure could damage the local economy.
“We are feeling very positive about the recommendations,” Lyon said. “They’ve heard us on the significant housing pressures we’re experiencing and the impacts of holiday letting.”
The premier, Chris Minns, on Wednesday said he understood the state was in a housing crisis but would not “put pressure” on Scully to accept the recommendation.
Scully will review the report in coming weeks before making his ruling for the northern rivers hotspot and working with the department to review the overarching policies, including caps, later this year.
“Everyone has a part to play in making sure there’s enough housing and short-term rental accommodation is just one aspect of that,” Scully said.
The state government introduced a requirement for all short-term rentals to be registered in 2021.
The planning department said the policies were trying to “balance the positive economic impacts of holiday homes, with the need to support local housing markets”.
“The short-term rental accommodation policy regulates an industry that hadn’t previously been regulated,” a department spokesperson said.
Under the policies, NSW Fair Trading can issue strikes against hosts and guests for “deliberate and persistent breaches of the law, including planning laws”.
