This report provides the overall results of research conducted to ascertain resident perceptions of short-term holiday lettings (STHLs), including Airbnb, within 12 councils in the Destination North Coast (DNC) zone (also referred to a Mid and North Coast area) of New South Wales (NSW), Australia. The results for each of the 12 councils have been compiled in individual council reports.
The research project follows a systematic scoping study in 2017-18 of international peer-reviewed studies on the implications of Airbnb on local communities by Southern Cross University (SCU) researchers (Caldicott, von der Heidt, Scherrer, Muschter, & Canosa, 2019), and an SCU study in 2018 of STHL in the Byron Shire (Che, Muschter, von der Heidt, & Caldicott, 2019). The current project was commenced following receipt of a Seed Funding Grant from the Tourism Research Cluster in SCU’s School of Business and Tourism (SBAT) with joint-funding from Destination North Coast.
The objectives of this 2019 project were to extend the scope of the 2018 Byron Shire study to include the other 12 councils/local government areas (LGAs) of the Mid North and North Coasts of NSW through:
1. Profiling the nature of STHL, particularly Airbnb, in the 12 communities, i.e. to determine the size, main attributes and development patterns of Airbnb in these areas.
2. Exploring, describing, and analysing community perspectives on the perceived impacts of Airbnb within their Shire, in order to inform specific and locally appropriate policy solutions.
To address Objective 1, the SBAT research team accessed secondary data from Airbnb and BnbGuard STHL reporting services. To address Objective 2, the team conducted primary research in the form of a survey of residents, including Airbnb Hosts (AH) and Approved Accommodation Providers (AAP) and Other residents in each of the 12 council areas. Recognisably, Airbnb has a range of impacts, which may be perceived in similarly or differently by AHs, AAPs and other residents.
Key overall findings:
1. Three major positive impacts of Airbnb on the general economy were perceived by most respondents: (1) increased revenues for local business; (2) increased employment opportunities, and (3) greater variety of retail services. Across all councils, AHs tended to view these impacts more positively than AAPs and Other residents. AHs indicated that Airbnb contributes to local government tax revenues, but this view was not supported by Other residents.
2. AAPs and, in particular, Other residents agreed that Airbnb has a number of negative impacts on the community. The top three perceived negative impacts were (1) increased traffic and parking congestion, (2) reduced availability of affordable housing for locals and (3) increased noise levels in neighbourhood. Most AHs perceived no negative impacts.
3. Airbnb has positive impacts for specific stakeholders, but may have no/negligible or even a negative impact on other community members. Notably, the majority of respondents agreed that Airbnb has positive impacts for the following stakeholder groups:
- For AHs in terms of income generation, and allowing AHs to stay in their home (AHs agreed most strongly).
- For AHs and AAPs in terms of bringing more visitors to the area
- For tourists in terms of providing more variety of accommodation, and making the tourist destination more affordable (AHs agree most strongly).
- For property investors in terms of increasing the number of property investors, as well as increasing property prices.
4. Respondents’ preferences for STHL day limits varied by type of STHL properties:
- For primary residence properties with host present, 61% of all respondents preferred no day limit.
- For primary residence properties temporarily holiday let without a host present, 45% of all respondents favoured a 90- or 180-day limit; 36% preferred no day limit and 19% wished for a full restriction (0 days; no STHL rentals).
- For permanently non-hosted investment properties, the preferences were split fairly evenly: 37% of all respondents preferred no restriction, 32% preferred a 90- or 180-day limit, and 31% wished for a full restriction (0 days; no STHL rentals). In other words, the majority of respondents (63%) favoured a model involving mandatory on-site management for STHL properties.
AHs tended to prefer no, or lower day limits compared with AAPs and Other residents.
5. Most AAPs and Other residents felt that STHL needs to be better regulated, particularly in terms of: (1) more adequate avenues to lodge complaints of misconduct; (2) enforcement of non-compliance; and (3) compulsory public liability insurance to cover STHL guests and third parties for injury and damage. Almost all of the Airbnb hosts disagreed with any STHL regulation needs.
6. AAPs and Other residents agreed with the need for greater public information on Airbnb-related issues, in particular on: (1) the extent of compliance with existing STHL regulation; (2) regulation of Airbnb rentals (e.g. rights and responsibilities of hosts and guests); and (3) impacts of Airbnb on longer-term residential rental accommodation. Almost all AHs disagreed with, or were neutral with regard to, the need to know more about Airbnb-related issues.