{"id":691943,"date":"2026-05-24T18:18:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T18:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/691943\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T18:18:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T18:18:25","slug":"hobart-councillors-push-to-double-rates-on-whole-home-short-stays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/691943\/","title":{"rendered":"Hobart councillors push to double rates on whole-home short stays"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hobart councillors will vote tomorrow night on a proposal to double council rates on whole-home short-stay accommodation, in a fresh bid to ease the city\u2019s housing crisis.<\/p>\n

The motion, brought by councillors Ben Lohberger and Ryan Posselt, targets properties like whole-home Airbnbs.<\/p>\n

It would lift the rate differential from 200% to 400% of the standard residential rate from July 1, 2027.<\/p>\n

If passed, the average affected property owner would pay around $3,738 more in general rates a year \u2013 a 92% increase, according to council figures.<\/p>\n

Properties with spare rooms or granny flats let out for short stays would not be targeted.<\/p>\n

\"\"More than 600 whole-home short-stay properties operate in the Hobart municipality. Image \/ Stock<\/p>\n

The motion states that southern Tasmania\u2019s rental vacancy rate is below 0.2% and that Hobart has the lowest rental vacancy rate of any Australian capital.<\/p>\n

Recent data from SQM Research put Hobart at 0.4% in April 2026 \u2013 less than half the national rate of 1.0% and the equal-tightest market in the country with Darwin.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a clear link between the conversion of long-term residential housing to tourism accommodation and the housing crisis in Tasmania,\u201d the councillors said in their motion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Housing Tasmania waiting list is 5,400, and there are now 4,700 whole home short stay accommodation properties across the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c4,700 whole homes lost for Tasmanians, with more than 600 of them in the Hobart municipality alone, the highest saturation of any capital city in Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The proposal would lift the rate differential from 200% to 400%. Image \/ Airbnb<\/p>\n

The motion also calls for a report investigating incentives for commercial hotel construction, to support the tourism sector.<\/p>\n

Council officers have advised that a jump to 400% cannot be implemented for 2026-27 because rates are about to be set and would require further consultation.<\/p>\n

As an alternative, the officers flagged the option of lifting the differential to 221% for 2026-27 \u2013 the same rate applied to commercial and industrial properties. <\/p>\n

That would add about $408 \u2013 or 10% \u2013 to the average short-stay owner\u2019s annual rates bill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hobart councillors will vote tomorrow night on a proposal to double council rates on whole-home short-stay accommodation, in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":691944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-691943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=691943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/691944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=691943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=691943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=691943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}