From hosts to ghosts: short-term rentals for entire homes outnumber shared stays

New AHURI research shows the short-term rental accommodation (STRA) sector is becoming increasingly professionalised, in a departure from its original ‘sharing economy’ model.

Monash University research fellow and study lead Dr Michaela Lang said Australia's housing crisis was increasing pressure on policymakers to address the impact of STRA.

"Short-stay rentals are shown to contribute to rising housing costs in areas with a high density of this type of accommodation, and policymakers need to understand the sector's evolving dynamics to address this," Dr Lang said.

Analysis of web-scraped Airbnb data from 2019 and 2023 revealed the number of ‘hosted STRA’ (where guests stay with the owner or at their property while they are away) fell to 50,166 – a difference of 23,544 fewer listings.

Meanwhile, the number of ‘non-hosted STRA’ (which were entire properties listed for at least 90 days per year) rose to 69,527 – removing an additional 8,822 potential long-term rentals from the market.

“There are now more listings for entire homes than there are for hosted rentals, which is a shift away from the original premise of platforms like Airbnb for property owners to host visitors in spare rooms,” Dr Lang said.

The analysis found non-hosted STRA was increasingly concentrated in regional tourist towns, while capital cities had slower growth in non-hosted rentals – or even a decline. Dr Lang suggested this was a flow on effect from COVID-19 lockdowns, which saw a shift away from STRA in capital cities.

There were also changes in the landlord cohort. The number of STRA operators with only one listing fell 25% over four years, to a total of 55,333, while those with 11 or more grew 27%, to total 885.

“This indicates a rise in professional property managers listing on behalf of owners and may also suggest that owners hold larger portfolios. Both trends reflect greater professionalisation,” Dr Lang said.
 

A lightly regulated sector

Dr Lang said Australia’s STRA market was shown to be lightly regulated by international standards, with patchwork regulation around the country.

“Among current regulations, three of the states and territories have levies on short-term rentals, and two have registration requirements. Nightly caps apply only in certain areas of New South Wales (NSW) and only Tasmania requires platforms to share data,” Dr Lang said.

The study suggested levies, such as those imposed by NSW, Victoria and the ACT, may result in some landlords exiting STRA, while others would pass the costs on to guests.

Interviews with local government stakeholders and previous research suggested where regulation did exist, compliance could be poor.

“Research we canvassed suggested more than 20% of non-hosted short-term rentals in Sydney and Byron Shire have exceeded regulations capping the nights they could be booked annually,” Dr Lang said.
 

Hosts’ perspectives

The research included interviews with STRA owners and representatives, and questions measuring attitudes towards STRA were added to the Property Investment Professionals of Australia’s 2024 investor survey.

“What emerged was a belief short-term rental is more work but also more profitable, and maximising profit was often the primary incentive,” Dr Lang said.

“For some landlords, social considerations were also important, such as the ability to meet people, host them, and provide them with a great experience.”
 

Policy recommendations

The research proposed policy actions to regulate short-stays, including a national STRA definition and improved data collection.

Insights should be accessible to local governments to support enforcement.

"Accurate data is key to effective policy, which could be achieved by mandatory registration and proactive compliance checks,” Dr Lang said.

The research was undertaken for AHURI by researchers from Monash University and The University of Adelaide.