City of Sydney survey shows inner-city residents largely in favour of short-term letting like Airbnb

Residents in Sydney’s inner-city suburbs believe it’s OK for an apartment’s spare room to be rented out short term on Airbnb or Stayz, or for the unit to be let when the resident is on holiday, but not to be made available full-time, a major independent survey has found.

Researchers commissioned by the City of Sydney questioned more than 1000 locals and found that 54 per cent supported holiday lets where the resident remains on the property – for instance renting out a spare room – and 53 per cent supported allowing them when the resident was on holiday.

On the other hand, only just over 35 per cent supported apartments being made available full-time for short-term letting as a commercial operation by the owner.

The findings come as a relief for apartment residents like premium wealth management banker Alice Hidajat, 28, who rents out her studio apartment in Potts Point through Airbnb when she goes on holiday to help her fund her time off.

“I think it’s good that people in the survey support that as it’s part of the sharing, caring economy, like Uber, and helps people get a little extra pocket money for their property,” she says.

“I love where I live and it’s great to be able to share that location when I’m away, and be a strong advocate for local businesses, by recommending cafes and places for guests to go. I think it’s a different category to having an investment property and letting it out for short periods all the time.”

The study, released exclusively to Fairfax Media, was undertaken by Woolcott Research and Engagement for the City of Sydney, which has the highest proportion of residents living in apartment buildings in the country.

It found, in addition, that a total of 64 per cent of respondents wanted strata committees to have more power to manage impacts such as anti-social behaviour, while a majority margin of just 2 per cent felt that strata committees should be able to ban short-term letting in their building.

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A total of 52 per cent of people who live in apartments where short-term letting occurs said they were personally impacted by it, through factors like noise and safety concerns with strangers in their buildings, mess, rubbish, damage, over-use of common facilities, drinking, parties and drugs.

The survey results are likely to trigger a major shift from the council’s previously held position, made to a NSW Parliamentary inquiry in 2015, that a change of use from residential to Airbnb-style holiday rentals should be “exempt developments” provided there was a limit on the number of nights a year.

This would have potentially changed residential-only zoning to commercial holiday lets and prevented individual apartments buildings from passing their own bylaws to curb holiday letting.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the City would make a fresh submission in response to the NSW government’s recent Options Paper. “This research is part of our work to understand the positive and negative impacts of short-term letting, and to guide our submission on the NSW government’s options paper,” she said.

“We’ll be backing this independent research with work to gauge the community’s preferences when it comes to short-term letting platforms like Airbnb and Stayz.”

The survey also found sharp divisions, however, between the views of different age groups. Young people under 35 were more likely to support short-term letting, whether a spare room or whole apartment full-time, as against those aged over 55.

Management consultant Chris McManamon, 40, is very much in favour of Airbnb, renting out the spare room in his apartment in Elizabeth Bay, and railing against the strata committee in another of his properties, in Potts Point, which has banned short-term lettings.

“When I first moved to Sydney, I was between jobs for the first time in my life so I could spend some time with my sick mother,” he says. “So I rented out the spare room, which provided the money I needed to eat as my partner’s income went on the mortgage and strata fees.

“My thinking is that it all comes down to being a good neighbour. I lived next door to an Airbnb property in Melbourne and didn’t even know!”

School administrator Maria Hoareau, 62, sees holiday let guests as being allowed a free-for-all, being bound neither by the bylaws that demand regular residents behave considerately, nor by tenants’ rental agreements.

“We’re a community but there’s one rule for us, and no rules for them,” says Ms Hoareau, who lives in an apartment building in Centennial Park. “We have young families who can’t rent properties near the schools they want their children to go to as they’re all being occupied by Airbnb.

“We’ve also had incidents at our property with them. A handrail was torn off the wall of a lift cage, and parties from Friday night to Saturday morning left the bus driver downstairs unable to go to work as he felt it would be too dangerous to drive on two hours’ sleep. We work hard to maintain our common property and should be able to make our own bylaws as these people may or may not give two hoots.”