Tuesday, 30 April 2024

 Sarah MANSFIELD (Western Victoria) (19:01): (845) The action I am seeking from the Minister for Consumer Affairs is for her to introduce short-stay regulations that will lead to a meaningful increase in the number of long-term rentals on the market. It should hardly be any news to this government that we are in a housing crisis, and yet Victorian Labor is refusing to take action for renters. The latest PropTrack rental affordability report has found that a median household can only afford 39 per cent of advertised rentals, and unregulated short-term letting such as through Airbnb is only making the situation worse.

In my electorate of Western Victoria there are currently 6837 homes or apartments listed on Airbnb. The average price per night is $462. Yet in many of the towns that have abundant short-stay availability, such as on the Surf Coast, the long-term rental vacancy rate is close to zero. In Warrnambool there are currently 135 homes listed on Airbnb, but only 38 properties are advertised to rent long term. This is a statewide issue. However, the lack of long-term rentals is having a particularly profound effect on small towns. It is not only driving people into housing stress or poverty or leaving them unhoused; people are being pushed out of places where they have lifelong connections.

Lack of long-term rentals also makes it impossible to attract essential workers in critical industries like health care, aged care, child care, teaching, agriculture and hospitality because there is simply nowhere for these key workers to live. In turn, the services and businesses are struggling to survive. It is simply not right that these houses that could be a home for someone are not available in the midst of a housing crisis. Other jurisdictions across the country and around the world are taking action to address this very problem. Most recently, Western Australia have introduced a range of measures to regulate short-stay rentals and Cairns Regional Council is considering planning scheme amendments, yet so far in Victoria Labor have been unwilling to try to tackle this issue.

The token levy that has been proposed by the government will only make holidays more expensive. It is not going to do anything to actually create more housing for those who need it. Our Parliamentary Budget Office costings show that the levy will actually be least effective in regional areas. The Greens want to see real action, and that is why we are pushing for things like a 90-day cap on the number of days a short-stay can be listed. We want a mandatory public register for short-stay properties and powers for apartment buildings to ban or limit short-stays. We want to see real changes that free up housing for people to actually live in, and I would urge the government to act.