Key points

• Residents fear short-stay sites mean fewer long-term rental properties are available. 
• According to data collection website insideairbnb.com, properties let via Airbnb account for almost 5000 homes along the Mornington Peninsula
• Airbnb says it is backing reforms to improve the sector. 

Not far from Kellie Langeliers’ Mount Martha property is an unassuming three-bedroom home. But looks can be deceiving.

This “renovated coastal abode” was reportedly booked by Airbnb customers for 255 nights last year, earning its owners – who also run another 46 properties through Airbnb – $103,500 in takings.

Kellie Langeliers says residential streets are being turned into commercial profit centres.Credit:Joe Armao

Holiday rental properties are increasingly common in the backblocks of coastal communities like Mount Martha, which are changing fast. According to data collection website insideairbnb.com, the properties let via the short-term rental platform now account for almost 5000 homes along the Mornington Peninsula, up from about 4000 last year.

On average, Airbnb properties are booked for 52 days a year, providing an average $23,600 annual income to their operators, according to insideairbnb.

Langeliers, who runs LUUP, an allied health, retail and cafe business in Mornington, said this rapid change posed an existential threat to coastal communities and their ways of life.

“This is absolutely our greatest threat to servicing customers come this summer and every future holiday period,” Langeliers said.

“We are turning our residential streets – home to the essential service that is housing – into commercial profit centres. We need to decide what sort of community we want to live in.”

The insideairbnb website says it supports residents and activists “who are fighting to protect their communities from the negative effects of short-term rentals”.

Airbnb declined to comment on the data listed on insideairbnb about the Mornington Peninsula.

Instead, the company cited a statement from October outlining proposed measures to improve the sector in Australia, including the introduction of registration schemes, codes of conduct and visitor levies to fund infrastructure and housing.

Properties listed on Airbnb are booming on the Mornington Peninsula. Credit:iStock

Critics of short-stay accommodation platforms argue the sites result in shortages of long-term rental properties, making it difficult to attract workers because they often have nowhere affordable to stay.

The new owners of Sorrento’s Continental Hotel came up with a novel approach to the housing shortage – they bought a former aged-care facility, spending an estimated $10 million to transform it into workers’ housing.

Sorrento Lodge plans to charge workers $280 a week for a bed in a twin-share room with access to communal cooking and living areas. (A permit for the development is being considered by the state government.)

Robert Dicintio – managing director of Trenerry Property Group, which redeveloped the hotel – said that without options like the lodge, workers would struggle to find affordable and flexible accommodation.

“Part-time staff can hardly afford a lease on a house or apartment, [and] high-season staff are not in a position to take out a six-month or yearly lease,” he said.

“Even full-time staff are reluctant to take on longer leases because, by nature, hospitality staff in the non-managerial positions are transitory.”

In the past year, regional councils have resorted to writing to property owners asking them to lease houses on the long-term rental market rather than using short-stay platforms.

Last week Warrnambool City Council voted to introduce a $400 fee for short-stay accommodation providers in an attempt to regulate the sector.

Mornington Peninsula Shire mayor Steve Holland called on the state government to give councils stronger powers over Airbnb operators.

Business owners on the peninsula say a lack of affordable housing is making it difficult to attract workers. Credit:Joe Armao

“We get the complaints, so our feeling is we’re best placed to deal with some of these problems,” he said.

Holland said enforcement action could include banning owners from putting properties up on short-stay platforms in cases where there were ongoing problems.

Mornington Peninsula Shire charges $311 to register short-stay homes, with 2444 properties on its register by last month, down from 2485 the same time the year before.

The council has a code of conduct that bans aggressive behaviour, camping on properties and using swimming pools between 11pm and 7am.

The council can revoke an owner’s rental registration, but Holland conceded it had limited powers, and enforcement costs outweighed the fees charged.

He said Airbnbs were proliferating in holiday hotspots, including Rye, Blairgowrie and Macrae.

“In some of the streets that we’re aware of you might have 20 houses and half of them can be running as Airbnbs, which is a nightmare for the residents who have the other houses.”

Holland said homelessness was rising on the Mornington Peninsula and people were sleeping rough every night on its foreshores.

The council reported almost 4000 people in the Mornington Peninsula region are on public housing waiting lists, with an estimated 1000 experiencing homelessness. Of those experiencing homelessness, 16 per cent are sleeping rough.

The Mornington Peninsula Shire wants stronger powers to regulate Airbnb operators. Credit:iStock

By October, the area had recorded a more than 30 per cent increase in the cost of rents, causing significant rental stress.

According to SQM Research, Mornington Peninsula had a 1.1 per cent vacancy rate in December.

A state government spokesman said it had introduced laws to limit disruption caused by unruly short-stay guests and continued to monitor the wider impact of the sector.

The government’s $5.3 billion commitment to deliver 12,000 social and affordable homes would help increase stock for long-term renters, he said.

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