THE impact of a government crackdown on unregistered Airbnb properties is ‘not known’, according to the Economic Development Minister – despite concerns that it could have reduced the number of beds available for visitors.
Deputy Kirsten Morel said that self-catering accommodation remained in ‘high demand’ in the Island, particularly in the summer months.
In November last year, Housing Minister David Warr and Environment Minister Jonathan Renouf announced that officers were cracking down on Islanders advertising entire properties as short-term holiday lets without permission, in an effort to address Jersey’s housing crisis and enforce planning law.
This meant investigating listings on popular websites such as Airbnb, which allows people to offer short-term lodgings or home stays for a fee.
Under the Planning and Building Law, the use of a property for short-term holiday letting is defined as ‘development’, and requires planning permission.
However, Deputy Renouf said he estimated that there were potentially hundreds of properties being used in this way that ‘won’t be regularised’.
At the time, both ministers acknowledged that the crackdown conflicted with the Island’s drive to improve its tourism sector, given that it could reduce the number of short-term holiday lets being offered.
One prospective visitor told the JEP they had decided to stay in England after failing find an appropriate holiday-let in Jersey (see letter on page 12 of today’s paper).
‘We were dismayed to learn from friends of friends that due to a Jersey government directive the majority of former holiday-let homes were not allowed to be rented to tourists and were to be assigned to essential employees or Islanders,’ they wrote.
In response, Deputy Morel said: ‘As part of [the] government’s response to the housing crisis, home owners were reminded that properties had to be registered in order to be marketed as short-term holiday lets.
‘Since the properties were not registered, it is not known how many unregistered properties which were previously holiday lets are now being used as permanent homes for Jersey residents. We recognise the importance of growing Jersey’s accommodation capacity for the visitor economy, and ensuring that the Island has the variety needed to suit all consumers, including those with pets.’
He continued: ‘Self-catering is recognised as an area that is in high demand, particularly in the summer months, and so we would welcome the ability to add to this pool of supply in a flexible manner, so long as this did not damage our housing market.
‘There are more than 1,200 registered beds in self-catering accommodation, and this is an area of the market that has seen growth in supply over the past ten years.’
Deputy Warr added: ‘We have always recognised that there is going to be a tension in terms of the economic benefit [to the tourism sector] vs housing demand.’
However, he said that the government ‘clearly’ had to intervene if they were aware that planning rules were being breached.
‘It’s one of those situations where you have to establish where the line in the sand is,’ he said.
