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Western Australia is made for getting away: from the crystal-clear beaches of the Coral Coast to the red dirt of the Kimberley, the vineyards of Margaret River to the ancient gorges of the Pilbara.
On holidays, we’re spoiled for choice not only for destinations but for places to stay. Short-term rentals are booming. Many of us use them and enjoy them.
But what is our vast holiday accommodation choice doing to the long-term rental market?
With vacancy rates at record lows, rents soaring, and renters locked out of a place to live, we need to talk honestly about the link between our holidays and our housing – between the short-stay boom and the long-term rental crisis.
Shelter WA’s new report lays bare the scale of the problem.
Across WA we found more than 10,400 unhosted Airbnb listings compared with about 3700 private rental listings over the same period.
It means there’s about three unhosted short-stay rentals for every long-term rental. That ratio blows out to 15 to 1 in regional areas.
If just one in three unhosted Airbnbs were returned to the long-term market, we could double WA’s available long-term rental supply. Let that sink in.
This is not a crusade to ban Airbnbs – they have their place, and I, like many, use them on holidays.
It’s not about blaming holiday-makers – we all deserve a break.
And it’s not about undermining tourism – a sector that is vital to WA’s economy and regional communities.
But it is about questioning whether the balance is right, and recognising that when housing supply is critically constrained, every home matters.
Short-stay rentals aren’t just outnumbering long-term rentals – they’re taking the homes renters need most, in the last suburbs where rents used to be affordable.
Many of these short-stay properties are one and two-bedroom dwellings, precisely the types of homes we are desperately short of for people who are single, older, working key jobs or have smaller families.
Hotspots for Airbnbs also include areas we wouldn’t naturally think of as tourist destinations, places like Wanneroo and Armadale, meaning there are fewer homes available for people to live in, in these key suburban areas.
Across WA, particularly in regional and high-tourism areas, we have hospitals, schools, aged care homes, and cafes struggling to find staff because there’s not enough long-term affordable homes.
Some workers are commuting hours, couch-surfing or living in caravans or cars. Others are simply leaving, taking vital skills with them – not because the work isn’t there, but because the housing isn’t.
Residents and holidaymakers rely on these workers.
Tourism depends on functioning communities.
Communities depend on people being able to live in them.
To its credit, the Cook government has taken meaningful steps.
This year’s state budget included worthy investments in housing and homelessness.
Rental reforms, including the ban on no-grounds evictions, are a huge step that will provide renters with a measure of security they’ve been denied for too long.
The government has also introduced reforms to regulate the short-term rental sector, including registration and development approval requirements, as well as incentives which saw the return of 800-plus properties to the long-term rental market.
Beyond that, it is up to each local government to develop and implement their own response to short-term rentals. This is an important starting point.
But with long-term rentals still painfully scarce, there is still so much more to be done.
This doesn’t mean shutting down short-term rentals. It means managing them more deliberately during a housing crisis.
I believe there is a strong case for the WA government to add some overarching measures to help with this, such as a moratorium on new listings in low vacancy spots, a levy for unhosted short-stay properties, and local limitations that fit the area and are set in collaboration with local governments.
Some WA councils are already working to strike a balance between supporting tourism and protecting housing supply.
We tip our hat to them. They understand their communities, their workforce needs and their housing pressures, and they are trying to do something about it.
At Shelter WA, we’ll continue to engage with councils and the state government.
The responsibility lies with both levels of government because what’s right for Perth isn’t necessarily right for Broome, Margaret River or Esperance – but the universal principle holds that everyone in our big state needs somewhere to live.
If we are serious about responding to the housing crisis, short-term rentals must be part of the conversation, alongside rent caps, more social and affordable housing and a WA based rental affordability scheme.
We are not calling for the end of holidays – we are asking for fairness and balance.
In the middle of a housing crisis, we must leave no pebble unturned.
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