ADJOURNMENT
Senator STEELE-JOHN (Western Australia) (16:10): Our housing market has, for too long, been treated as a means of wealth accumulation rather than the vital part of our society that it is—something which should exist to provide shelter and wellbeing across Australia. The policy settings of successive governments have led to massive wealth inequalities becoming the norm and rapid increases in housing costs which have fast outpaced the growth of wages and have seen across our country an escalating homelessness crisis.
The CGT discount has contributed to this housing crisis, but there is still much to do to create a housing system that works for people, not for profit. One area where government policy and investment decisions have had negative impact on housing supply is short-term rental accommodation. We know that many investors find it far more profitable to list their houses as unhosted short-stay accommodation rather than private rentals, using platforms such as Airbnb or Stayz.
This trend is massively affecting housing supply across Australia. I'm not talking about families putting their house up on Airbnb while they go on holiday or a spare room being rented within your home. I'm talking about when it is unhosted—when entire homes and units are bought from locals and then listed as unhosted holiday stays.
Every house listed as an unhosted Airbnb is one fewer home for people who want to live in that area. Recently, Shelter WA has found that over 10,000 homes in our state are listed as short stays, and they are unhosted. That is almost three times the number of available long-term rentals in WA, with more than half of those short stays being one- or two-bedroom units.
It's these small, affordable homes that are being taken out of the market first, leaving fewer options for singles, for couples and for young people. In regional WA, the ratio of Airbnbs to private rentals is 14 to one. Too many homes in our WA regional towns are getting sucked up by investors.
As an example, Shelter WA has found that in the Shire of Augusta Margaret River there are over 850 unhosted Airbnbs listed in that community compared to only 20 rentals. That is a ratio of 43 to one. Many investors own dozens of properties, with a single owner listed as having over 150 Airbnbs.
This is blatant profiteering during a housing crisis—the worst on record. Someone should not be able to own over a hundred holiday homes while people are sleeping in their cars. The Australia that looks to this place for action is one which is rightly disgusted.
Our community is rightly infuriated by the inaction that has allowed inequality to get so bad. The solutions are widely known. We need to ensure that new homes go to the people who need them.
I was shocked to learn of a report conducted by Grounded in Victoria. It studied 13 local areas and found that 74 per cent of the new housing supply built there went to short-term rental investors. Some governments have tried bandaid, sugar hit solutions that are not really getting us out of the crisis.
Other jurisdictions around Australia and across the world have found the levers that work—putting in place restrictions on the locations or the nights that are allowed to be used by an Airbnb, requiring unhosted short stays to be decided by councils and levies that make a meaningful impact on whether these are things that private investors consider. Houses are for building lives, not just for building wealth.
Senate adjourned at 16:15