Council wants help regulating short-term room renters

Thursday, 22 November 2018

Airbnb's great most of the time, but when it goes bad it can go really bad (video published September 2018).

The Christchurch City Council will lobby the Government to put laws in place to regulate Airbnb-type operators.

The council and many others throughout New Zealand have been grappling with how to regulate the short-term accommodation industry, which is growing throughout the country.

Government regulation would help staff to manage the issue, council economic policy principal advisor Gavin Thomas said at a council meeting on Thursday.

Renting your Christchurch house on Airbnb for more than four months a year? The council wants to bill you about $1000.

'If [the Government] required all online providers to do xyz, it would make it easier for us.'

* City council launching campaign to crack down on illegal Christchurch Airbnbs

* Airbnb surge triggers Canterbury research

* Queenstown council calls for urgent bed tax pilot**

Councillor Jamie Gough said the issue was much bigger than Christchurch and it needed a nationwide approach to deal with it.

Councillors unanimously decided to get staff to investigate applying a business rate on whole properties used for hosting short-term guests in schemes like Airbnb for four or more months a year. Staff would also investigate a possible permit system.

The problem is, the council has no extra money or staff to enforce the proposed moves. Staff only investigate properties when complaints are made, but there are potentially hundreds of properties operating in residential areas without the necessary resource consents.

The aim was to create a fairer situation for traditional accommodation suppliers like hotels and motels.

Based on average property value, the council estimates a business rate would add $1000 to the rates bill of about 700 affected properties – although this would not increase overall council revenue, but lead to a reduction on the rates of other properties.

Cr Raf Manji asked staff if they had considered asking Airbnb to charge a per day fee on its website, given it was so complicated for the council to track down properties to apply the proposed business rate to.

Thomas said that was effectively a bed tax.

Staff had talked to Airbnb and 'on the face of it' they were willing to be as helpful as they could be, Thomas said. That was unlikely to extend to a bed tax.

Bookabach general manager Peter Miles has called for a national policy response to the issue.

'Again, we are seeing local governments seeking to resolve a complex policy issue with their limited policy levers. Rather than proceeding with this haphazard approach, we believe there remains a strong case for the central government to step in with a lasting solution on tourism infrastructure funding.'

Home-share accommodation has grown rapidly in Christchurch. Airbnb listings grew from 283 to 3481 in the last two years (June 2016 and August 2018). During that time, Airbnb's share of guest nights in Christchurch grew from 0.7 to 21.6 per cent. Entire home listings grew from 114 to 1471 over the same period.

Of those, the council has identified 1100 properties being used for Airbnb that could be operating in a residential area, for any length of time, without the necessary resource consent.