The Victorian premier’s tax on Airbnb properties was a soft target. Governments need to get tough to make a difference to housing affordability.
, the Airbnb story is slightly different. In the five years to 2023, the number of Airbnb listings fell dramatically from 30,936 to 12,305., whether booked through Airbnb, Expedia, Booking.com or other platforms, to a maximum of 180 days annually in Sydney.
In the past five years, the average daily amount charged by a Sydney Airbnb host grew 31 per cent to $296.11, which includes those hefty cleaning fees that irk most guests.A year or two ago, social media was full of stories of the outrageous requests some Airbnb hosts made of guests to, while still charging big cleaning fees. These included requests from stripping beds and putting the dirty linen and towels into the washing machine to vacuuming and mopping the floors.
But Airbnb and similar companies are an easy target, and not the main cause of the housing crisis. It’s been a failure of government policy decisions over the past two decades that have exacerbated the housing shortage, not just in Australia, but other nations as well.The Victorian government has taken steps towards addressing the housing crisis by announcing an ambitious target of 800,000 new homes over the next decade, including the promise of faster and more centralised planning decisions.
For now, it’s softer targets such as the promise to accelerate housing development and Airbnb owners.
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