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Tenants’ Union of Tasmania solicitor Ben Bartl is calling for a ban of short-stay accommodation within Greater Hobart. Picture: MATHEW FARRELL
A HOBART councillor wants a cap on short-stay properties in the city to stem the tide of homes being converted to visitor accommodation and lost to the long-term rental market.
Meanwhile, the Tenants’ Union of Tasmania has called again for the State Government to ban short-stay accommodation approvals in greater Hobart and other areas, such as the East Coast. The union says the impact on local communities has been detrimental.
“Six per cent of Hobart’s rental stock has been replaced by short-term accommodation, which has contributed to an acute housing crisis in which displacement and skyrocketing rents have become the norm,” the Tenants’ Union senior solicitor Ben Bartl said.
At last week’s Hobart City Council meeting, an apartment owned by a retired Canberra couple was narrowly approved 6-5 to be converted into short-stay accommodation.
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Councillor Holly Ewin took to Facebook after the meeting: “Council has just narrowly passed yet another application for a residential property in Hobart to be converted to visitor accommodation. It’s like half the room somehow isn’t aware of the housing crisis.”
Cr Ewin said the council should consider a cap on short-stay properties to help alleviate the rental shortage in Hobart.
But Alderman Simon Behrakis, who voted to approve the conversion, said such matters should be considered individually.
Referring to last week’s vote, he said: “This isn’t taking away a home from supply in Hobart because if it wasn’t approved, it would have just remained empty,” he said.
The apartment is within a residential complex at 1 Collins St, where there are two other short-stay units.
There were conditions attached to the approval, including a maximum occupancy of five people; guests cannot use the common gym and pool, and a 24-hour-a-day number for neighbours to ring the property manager if needed.
The property owner, James Ross, wrote a letter to the council to explain his decision.
“In order to still be able to get income from the property and have access to it ourselves, we need to covert this property to short-term accommodation,” he said.
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Greens Councillor Deputy Lord Mayor Helen Burnet said the council was dealing with a lot of these applications and Hobart was losing many homes to the short-stay sector.
“There needs to be greater protection for residences in strata titles,” she said.