THE owner and landlord of a short term rental property has defended her “business” as one that brings prosperity to the Mornington Peninsula.
“We had 6.9 million visitors to the peninsula last year and the average spend for an overnight visitor was $493 a person. That’s a whopping $849 million dollars last year being spent in our local economy from visitors staying on the peninsula,” Floss Butterworth said.
“I am so sick of the same Airbnb rhetoric that short term holiday rentals hurt communities and are to blame for our rental crisis.
“I certainly don’t see my short term rental as a scourge ‘eroding the community’ or ‘ethically wrong and destroying the fabric of community’. My short term rental is my job and, just like any other small business owner, I work really hard to provide an exceptional service to our customers (“Landlords stay put as communities ‘eroded’” The News 21/2/23).”
Other small business owners on the peninsula claim their staff have difficulty finding long term rentals and Mornington Peninsula Shire has appealed to property owners to consider switching from short term rentals to long term.
There are about 4000 people on the public housing waiting list and an estimated 1000 sleeping rough, according to the shire, with about 5000 properties available only for short stays.
Butterworth said there would not be enough visitor accommodation on the peninsula without short term rental properties such as hers at Rosebud.
“Imagine the loss of jobs, dollars and flow on impact on all the other local businesses if you remove that from the economy?
“Where my short term stay is located I have four permanent holiday houses – one each side of my house and two directly across the street – which are very rarely used and may have their owners stay in them for a maximum of 20-25 nights a year, often much less.” The owners of these mostly vacant properties were not providing any “add-on benefits” to the community that her property did.
“They are not injecting any visitor dollars to the local shops, restaurants, cafes, galleries, wineries, dolphin swims, golf courses, shopping centres or community.
“They are not paying local cleaners, garden maintenance companies, laundromats, booking agencies, local host agencies. They are not organising community host events like beach clean ups that the Airbnb collective has.”
Butterworth said the visitor industry provided jobs for peninsula residents, saw landlords buying local produce for guests.
Short term rental landlords were often active in community groups “and would like nothing better than to see affordable housing and crisis accommodation for those sleeping rough”.
On behalf of a collective of Airbnb hosts she had discussed with council “to see where we as short stay accommodation providers can work together with offers of help to collaborate and be part of the solution”.
Butterworth had no doubt “we are in the midst of a housing crisis” with “decades of lack of government social housing investment taking its toll”.
A recent survey of short stay hosts had shown they would not put their properties in the long term rental market if they were no longer able to operate as a short stay.
“Often a short term rental is not a stand alone building but a semi-detached building or a shared room in the host’s home. If it’s a stand alone holiday house then sometimes it’s rented out only when the owners or family are not using it themselves.
“Figures thrown around that 5000 short stay accommodation houses on the peninsula can be returned and used as long term rentals are simply just not true.”
Butterworth would “hate to see” short term rental properties sit idle if they were restricted in their ability to operate. They would not continue to provide economic benefits to the peninsula.
“I know that Airbnb and short stay rentals are easy targets and blaming them for the housing crisis or thinking that taxing them, charging them more fees, limiting the nights they can rent them out or abolishing them all together is an easy solution to making more houses available, but bear in mind the negative on effect that this will cause to the whole of our region,” she said.
“Affordable housing and homeless services are a state government responsibility, so please, let’s stop blaming those running a local business and supporting the economy and tourism industry.
“Let’s try working together as a Mornington Peninsula community, and demand that the state government act on its responsibilities to social and affordable housing.
“Let’s, as a region, push for urgent strategies and well thought out solutions that allow all people and families a roof over their heads and a safe place to call home.”
First published in the Southern Peninsula News – 28 February 2023
