By Noosa Councillor Amelia Lorentson
We need to stop blaming and punishing mum and dad investors with mortgages, families and life plans who are providing short term visitor accommodation. They are not the enemy nor the reason we have a housing crisis. The issues to do with STA are about management and control of STAs and these issues have always been there and are present in every tourist town.
Party houses are the issue, not STAs.
There is no question that some holiday homes have a significant impact on the residential amenity, particularly the party houses, homes that accommodate large number of guests, those homes remotely managed and those poorly managed, without a local person for the action of guests or managing the property. These types of STAs are destroying the culture and character of our neighbourhoods and community. And they must be stopped. Responsible management, limiting numbers of people in each home, enforcing noise restrictions, three strikes and you’re out. A Mandatory Code of Conduct with teeth.
Blaming STAs for depletion in housing supply as the only reason must stop and limiting the number of STAs will not solve the housing crisis. All it will do is risk severely damaging the tourist accommodation/tourism sector that is our primary employer and risk taking away employment from the very people we are trying to help.
We need to be honest with ourselves as a community and work together to achieve long term solutions that don’t pit one sector of our community against another. And that means accepting the truth that properties in a tourist town are never going to be affordable.
Limiting the number of STAs will not solve the housing crisis because the crisis is about different kinds of accommodation. It’s about affordable housing and social housing, and this is not a Noosa problem. It is an Australia-wide problem and it is not within council’s remit to come up with a solution.
We must work together and demand that the government responsible for the issue steps up and works with housing providers committed to providing affordable safe and appropriate homes to community.
Council must look at planning options to facilitate ancillary dwelling units in appropriate locations, approving boarding houses/micro apartments, granny flats for unrelated parties and open up more land for pilot lower cost housing projects and duplexes.
Since Covid, Noosa has had the largest growth of inward migration from capitals among all the LGAs in Australia (49 per cent). Record low interest rates, government stimulus and ‘the pandemic-driven stampede’ has resulted in rising prices and an unprecedented demand on housing availability.
Last week council resolved to work on data and empirical research to inform policy changes. An independent housing affordability study that requires council to provide short, medium and long-term options that are available to council to address the shortage of housing for our permanent residents. A report that meets with the Minister’s conditions which requires council to ‘monitor the planning scheme provisions for a two-year period relating to short term accommodation, tourism, housing supply, considering the outcomes sought across the residential zones.’ Policy options based on data and empirical research, and not on emotion and ideology.
The work has not been done (IMO) to substantiate any changes in policy relating to short term accommodation, including the economic impact that changes in relation to short term housing will have on the tourism industry, tourism economy and local employment.
As stakeholders the community are entitled to ask for proper analysis that includes an economic impact study. It would be negligent (IMO) to allow changes to occur to visitor accommodation (STAs) without proper consideration of the proposed changes. The economic consequences to the tourism economy of Noosa needs to be considered and made public as tourist accommodation is vital to the Noosa economy.
The reality is that visitors spend more than locals, and a bed night keeps a whole range of people within the community employed- chefs, waiters, cleaners, photographers, wedding celebrants, plumbers, electricians, handymen, to name a few.
This is a complex problem, there is no silver bullet and limiting STAs is NOT the answer.
Balance is required, both economic and social balance. This is a tourist town and it is a resident town. And the two are intrinsically linked and we cannot underestimate how important tourism is to the sustainability of our town’s economy.
Limiting STAs would (IMO) change the character and appeal of Noosa as a tourist destination and impact Noosa’s economy, jobs, visitor numbers, visitor spend and investor interest.
Major organisations likely to be impacted, including large employers like the Noosa Surf Club, industry participants such as all of the major real estate agents, restaurant owners and retailers. All of who have made significant investments on the basis of a previously held confidence that this council supports an ongoing and viable tourism industry.
The Noosa Shire Corporate Plan states (theme 3) that council ‘will provide support for a sustainable tourism sector’ as one of its leading priorities and the Noosa Tourism Strategy aims to focus ‘value over volume by targeting high-yielding visitors, particularly from interstate and international markets’. It also aims to ‘identify, attract and nurture new world-class experiences, events and accommodation options’.
So how can we support tourism strategy on one hand and then on the other hand destroy tourism opportunities by removing or reducing the number of holiday-let properties?
Let’s do the work, get the data and proper analysis. And let’s better understand what alternative approaches have been researched, presented and deliberated to deal with the real issue of housing affordability.
Let’s get that process right by correct terms of reference and by appointing the right independent consultant.
And let’s STOP blaming STAs for our housing crisis, otherwise we will end up throwing the baby out with the bath water.
My position on STAs:
I do NOT support unregulated STAs and I do NOT support party houses. I support a strict Mandatory Code of Conduct for STAs.
I support the Noosa Plan that states the STAs are a land use and not an impact. I support council’s STA guide that states: “where short term accommodation is identified as consistent in the zone, it is generally considered an appropriate use in the zone, providing it can operate in a manner that does not adversely impact on its surroundings and the residential amenity enjoyed by permanent residents’.
I support Noosa Shire’s Corporate Plan that states that council ‘will provide support for a sustainable tourism sector’ as one of its leading priorities.
And I support working together with councillors and community to achieve long term solutions that don’t pit one sector of our community against another.
(This is an opinion piece that expresses my personal view only and not that of Noosa Council)
