Holiday homeowners in the South West tourist town of Busselton have refused “desperate” pleas to rent out their vacant properties, saying they were being treated as scapegoats for the nationwide housing crisis.
Busselton Mayor Grant Henley, in what he said was an act of desperation, was set to write to the owners of hundreds of holiday homes in Western Australia’s biggest food and wine region to ask them to rent out their properties to locals.
“I’m putting a plea out to those property owners if they’re not using those properties to really consider putting them into the long-term market,” Henley told ABC, adding that similar initiatives had been made “in desperation” by authorities on the east coast, with some success.
“The Eurobodalla Council on the South Coast in New South Wales sent out 1,000 letters to Canberra and Sydney property owners and managed to get 40 or 50 properties back into the rental market out of that. So, it’s better than nothing,” he said.
But holiday homeowners have responded angrily to the mayor’s call, saying the government should focus on the real issues.
“They’re using these people is a scapegoat to take focus off the real issues — the lack of government housing, and a shortage of building supplies and tradesmen,” said Davinia Gillard, who manages 80 holiday properties, many in Busselton and Dunsborough. “It should go back to the government and why aren’t they building more government housing?”
Gillard said she had discussed with property owners whether they would consider long-term leases.
“They are quite clear on it that they wouldn’t rent out their house long-term because it’s their home that they use on a regular basis,” she told ABC. “When they're not using it, they rent it out to holiday-makers to make the extra income.”
Talkback caller Graham, who owned a holiday house in Dunsborough, told ABC the real issue was the shortage of public housing.
“The government has been lax on public housing, going back decades,” he said. “I mean, it's their responsibility. There's a certain proportion of the population that can’t afford to buy houses and isn't that the government's responsibility? I'm not sure that it’s mine.”
Earlier this year, Busselton introduced some of the strictest regulations for short-stay rental properties in Australia.
The local laws imposed a night curfew on the number of guests past 10:00 pm, required property managers to respond to complaints within 12 hours, and placed a ban on dogs being left alone at properties. Noncompliance with new regulations could result in operators getting deregistered, ABC reported.
