The Greens will push for a parliamentary inquiry into the effect short-term rental platforms have had on the availability of long-term tenancies in Canberra, including services such as Airbnb.
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Johnathan Davis, the Greens member for Brindabella, will on Thursday move a motion in the Legislative Assembly calling for a review into the platforms, which he noted were presently unregulated in the ACT.
"Canberra is experiencing a shortage of long-term rental accommodation which is contributing to our city having the highest median rents in the country," Mr Davis said.
"Platform-based short-term accommodation like Airbnb is increasingly popular with property owners. Sites like Airbnb allow property owners to make a good return on their property investment without entering into tenancy agreements which afford tenants certain rights."
Mr Davis said Canberra was experiencing a rental crisis and its parliament needed to consider all the factors affecting the availability and cost of rental accommodation.
The ACT was the first jurisdiction to regulate Uber, the app-based taxi disruptor, but has long held no official position on the use of platforms like Airbnb.
While other online short-term rental services exist, Airbnb is the most well-known service and has a significant share of the market.
Hobart City Council in March voted to limit the number of houses offered as private short-term rentals by clamping down on the number of permits it issued to lessors, amid a significant shortage of rental properties in the Tasmanian capital.
Airbnb has been contacted for comment.
Mr Davis previously pushed for an inquiry into a vacancy tax that would charge landlords for leaving their properties empty.
The Legislative Assembly's economy and gender and economic equality committee on Tuesday announced it would hold an inquiry into housing and rental affordability. Public submissions are invited until July 29.
Canberra's vacancy rate sat at 0.5 per cent in February, Domain's monthly Vacancy Rates Report has shown. It was the lowest rate since Domain records began in 2017, and is down from 0.7 per cent in January and 0.8 per cent in February 2021.
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Canberra also remains the most expensive capital city rental market in Australia, following a 2.1 per cent increase in rent prices in the final quarter of 2021.
CoreLogic's latest rental review showed Canberra's median rent, across both houses and units, is now $651.
Canberra rents were up 0.8 for the month to December and 8 per cent over the previous 12 months. The quarterly rise in rents was among the highest in the nation and exceeded the national growth of 1.9 per cent.
Meanwhile, the Attorney-General, Shane Rattenbury, hopes to have changes to rental laws in the ACT passed early next year, after a consultation process found most people supported introducing new reasons to evict tenants when no-cause evictions were banned.
Mr Rattenbury said the ACT government might also look at promoting longer-term tenancies as more Canberrans were forced to lease places to live for longer periods of time.
"I guess that's the thinking behind a lot of these questions we're posing at the moment: a recognition that people potentially are renting for longer periods of time. A property needs to be a home, not just a rental," he said.
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