Rental crisis: Airbnb and holiday home owners urged to let properties out to long-term renters

Councils across the country are urging people with empty holiday homes and Airbnbs to move them on to the long-term rental markets in a bid to deal with the housing crisis.

In Noosa the mayor, Kim Rawlings, put out the call after watching the median weekly rent increase to $700 in the December 2022 quarter compared with $490 in December 2019.

Research conducted last year by the University of Queensland for the ABC revealed there were 251,000 homes in Australia listed on short-term stay websites listed in September.

Inside Airbnb, which tracks listings to show the impact of short-term rentals on the rental market, shows there are 20,768 listings in Melbourne and 22,659 across Sydney.

But Hayden Groves, the president of Real Estate Institute of Australia, said if the example in Eurobodalla shire were mirrored in every council, it could release 42,000 dwellings.

With winter approaching, it was critical that every dwelling was used to house tenants, he said.