Steve Whan
Minister for Skills, TAFE, and Tertiary Education

Media Release
Whan urges locals to comment on Short Term Rental discussion paper

Thursday, 15 February 2024

Member for Monaro Steve Whan has welcomed the release of a discussion paper on options for changing regulation on tax around Short-Term Rental accommodation to provide some relief to the shortage of long-term rental and housing.

Steve Whan said "The housing crisis has hit every part of Monaro, but the issues around lack of long-term accommodation are particularly critical in the Snowy Mountains.

"7% of private dwellings in the Snowy Monaro Regional Council (771 homes) are non-hosted short term rental accommodation. That's the second highest ratio in the State and when you consider that is mostly concentrated around Jindabyne it indicates a much bigger proportion of that community.

"Short term rental does play an important role in providing tourism accommodation, but it is very clear from the problems we are seeing in the community that the balance just isn't right.

"I have lost count of the number of times i have been told of essential workers like teachers and paramedics not being able to find rental accommodation in Jindabyne, the same goes for those critical seasonal tourism workers.

"Jindabyne and the region around it have more than 700 houses being used for Short Term Rental, on top of that there are many holiday houses that are vacant for large portions of the year.

"This discussion paper is asking for comments on what policy responses we should make- if any. There are a number of regulatory or tax options that are available, all have positives and negatives, but it is important to hear from people about which should be investigated further.

The discussion paper can be found at: Discussion paper on short and long-term rental accommodation | Department of Planning Housing and Infrastructure (nsw.gov.au)

"The Government and I recognise that in the medium to longer term the real solution is to increase housing supply and provide better options for key worker accommodation. We are moving to do that, but it takes a bit of time.

"As one of the most affected regions in the State, I encourage people to look at this paper and comment" Steve Whan concluded.