Home-sharing website Stayz believe proposed changes to the short-term holiday letting industry could undermine regional jobs and tourism.
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In 2016, the NSW Legislative Assembly Committee on Environment and Planning conducted an inquiry into the regulation of short-term holiday letting (STHL) in NSW, including services like Airbnb and Stayz.
The state government is seeking feedback until October 31 on the new STHL Options Paper.
Potential options the government is seeking views on include industry self-regulation, such as a code of conduct, complaints management, education, monitoring and reporting; and strata regulation, including by-laws managing visitor behavior, by-laws for compensation for adverse effects and by-laws prohibiting STHL.
Other potential options are limiting the length of stays and number of days per year that a dwelling can be used as STHL.
However, Stayz claims the government’s Options Paper had failed to properly distinguish between holiday homes and city short-term rentals, undermining regional jobs and tourism.
Jordan Condo, director of corporate and government affairs at Stayz said the paper contained options that will hurt economic growth and jobs in rural and regional NSW.
“Holiday homes are the lifeblood of many regional towns and cities, but the government has ignored regional constituents in their response,” Mr Condo said.
“Stayz strongly believes that regulatory efforts designed to manage city problems should not damage regional economies, where tourism is a key driver of local jobs and economic uplift.”
Mr Condo claimed the Options Paper did not distinguish between someone renting out a beach or bush holiday home from someone renting out a room in an already leased property in a city strata apartment.
“If this distinction is not recognised it will have damaging consequences for the economy and jobs in regional towns like Port Macquarie and Kiama,” he said.
“Why should someone who owns a beach shack and has for decades leased it out to others when not using it themselves suddenly be handed a bunch of red tape and financial burden for providing accommodation in the parts of NSW where it is needed the most?”
Mr Condo also said Stayz would support a process that would require all owners to register to a central system before they can list a property on a platform.
He said owners would be required to adhere to a strict code of conduct, and if the regulations and the code of conduct were breached an owner would be prevented from listing their property on any platform.
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