By Rowland Hill, Noosa Resident
The draft Destination Management Plan confirms the distortion that the short-term rental market is bringing to Noosa’s accommodation and residential sectors.
Of 1 million overnight visitors a year to Noosa, just 8 per cent stay in hotel or motel rooms. Most of the rest stay in apartments (47 per cent), houses (16 per cent) and town houses (14 per cent). Then there are another 1m day trippers!
A tourism-led gentrification of Noosa’s housing stock is underway, with demolition and re-build (or renovation) a common consequence when properties change ownership. AIR DNA tracks the on-line short term rental market and reports a 13 per cent increase in listings in Noosa Heads since the March quarter 2018, and an 11 per cent increase in Noosaville. AEC Economics reports even greater conversions – with an 18.2 per cent increase in Noosa houses available for short term rent over the two years to October 2022. Lucid Economics says Noosa has the highest rate of Air BnB penetration anywhere in Australia.
The community consequence is that long-term residents are being displaced by rental increases, service providers in the health and hospitality sectors cannot afford to live here, and neighbourhood quality of life for long-term residents is compromised. If unchecked Noosa’s future is a town dominated by visitors.
The change is being driven by out-of-town investors, with more than 80 per cent of owners of Noosa’s short-term rental properties living outside Noosa. According to statistics compiled by AEC Economics these absentee-investors pocketed more than $130m in rents in the year to July 2022.
After sustained public outcry and significant resistance from the real estate industry and property management interests, two years ago the Council declared the inundation of short-term rental properties impacting residential amenity should end. The decision was not unanimous and reached only after significant resistance from a number of Councillors. A Local Law requiring new building standards and approvals for private dwellings offered for SSL, annual registrations, a renter code of conduct, and a complaints hotline was introduced.
At the time some Councillors declared there would be no new SSL approvals in low density residential areas. Later the ban was extended to medium and high-density zones, but this planning decision remains to be OK’d by the State Government.
Has the Local Law ended the SSL tsunami? The relevant statistical section of Noosa Council’s web site advises visitors that numbers are “coming soon”. Anecdotally, approvals continue, and some do not meet a reasonable person’s ‘pub test’.
As a result, ratepayers are asking if the Council’s public commitment to halt SSL growth is being realised. If not are the SSL regulations and delegated authorities appropriate?
Noosa’s future ‘look and feel’ hangs on it. Does it have a future as the environmentally attractive sea change option of the past? Or is its future as a Disney World version of a visitors-only resort town?
The draft Destination Management Plan presents a community aspiration for Noosa: One that
avoids further impacts on Noosa Shire values, character, local amenity and natural environment by responding to visitor and resident carrying capacity.
Now is the opportunity for all residents concerned about the impacts of short-term rents to tell Councillors that’s what they want through the draft plan’s public consultation processes.
You have until 29 October 2023 to have your say on the Draft Destination Management Plan (at https://yoursay.noosa.qld.gov.au/destination-management-plan-for-noosa-shire). Speak up and tell Council (via your comments on the plan) and your Councillors (and the Mayor) by directly emailing them (details here https://www.neighboursnotstrangersnoosa.com/noosa-mayor-and-councillors), how you feel - Council elections are in March 2024, and Councillors responses could well dictate the outcome.
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