Senator Lyndon Farnham said there was a ‘balance to be struck’ after revealing that the number of Airbnb properties in the Island had nearly tripled recently, having risen from 70 in 2016 to more than 180 this year.
There is currently no legislation to limit the number of properties which can be registered on the globally-recognised platform, which allows people to offer short-term lodgings or home stays for a fee.
Senator Farnham said: ‘There is certainly a place for limited Airbnb in relation to our visitor economy. However, we want to ensure that we don’t allow for it to become a primary source of accommodation when we have a housing shortage and need to make sure that potential homes for Islanders aren’t taken away from them.’
He added that the Tourism Strategy, which is due to be published early next year, would provide an ‘opportunity’ to regulate Airbnb properties.
‘It is important we regulate the number of Airbnb properties in the Island and the types of property that are going on there. This could easily be done through a permit system,’ he said.
‘It is fine if people want to take in visitors as an extension of their home, but it is not okay for people to move out of their house and change its primary use to Airbnb – and this is something we need to resolve quickly before it becomes a problem in the near future.
‘I think there is a balance to be struck because it is important to have stock outside the traditional hotel stock. A lot of young people who come to the Island will do so on the basis they can rent an Airbnb room and so we need to make sure there is that option for people.’
No licence or registration is needed to sublet a property to five or fewer people in the Island. However, those who do not have the authority to rent rooms, such as tenants whose contracts do not allow subletting and those restricted by mortgage or loan agreements, open themselves up to legal repercussions if they attempt to list their home on the site.
Islanders can, in theory, rent space in their homes within hours. Airbnb charges a commission of between 3% and 5%.
Deputy Inna Gardiner, who is a member of the Environment, Housing and Infrastructure Scrutiny Panel, said: ‘We need to find a balance because we don’t want to ban them, but we need to see how we can manage the number of Airbnb properties in the Island because it will be having an impact on our housing market.’
Earlier this month, Israel published its Government Housing Plan, which includes proposals to prevent short-term rentals, such as Airbnb, in central areas to try to prevent house prices in the country from rising.
Government ministers there estimated that preventing the use of residential properties for visitor accommodation would bring up to 13,000 apartments in areas of high demand back onto the market.
